Perfectionist Complex
by gamerprincess13
Summary: "You must be perfect to get everyone to at least respect you. Anything less than that, then you're worthless. Remember that." These are the words Tsubaki Miyazaki live by for as long as he remembered. Until recently... Mordern AU/High School AU. Also on AO3 with the same username.
1. Pair Ups

_"_ _...For this assignment, you'll be working with a partner that I'll randomly choose from the computer..."_

When the teacher mentioned the last part, almost everyone in the classroom groaned as there's a good chance that they'll be stuck with someone who won't do their fair share of the work, has quirks that might annoy them, has a hatred for them, the list goes on.

Kamui Hier, on the other hand, didn't mind the fact that the English teacher is going to assign partners rather than letting everyone choose who to work with. She, along with her younger brother, Leo, transferred to Emblian High School, with Elise at Zenith Middle School, just a month ago due to Xander's and Camilla's new jobs that are quite far from their old home. And in the time from September to early October, Kamui isn't familiar with most of her classmates in her grade besides Leo and her old childhood friend, Silas.

Unfortunately for her, neither Leo nor Silas is in her English class. From the decently large class of twenty-seven, she can recognize at least four: Owain Griffith, who she can recognize due to him somehow being friends with her brother and his 'colorful' personality (as Leo puts it lightly). Inigo Bellerose as he flirts with almost every girl he sees, including Kamui at one point. Oboro Tachibana, who gives a nasty glare whenever she's near someone who's from Kamui's old district, Nohr. And the last one she can recognize easily that's been dubbed as Mr. Perfect by several of Kamui's classmates (even Silas): Tsubaki Miyazaki.

With the exception of Tsubaki, Kamui has made at least one conversation with her classmates that she recognizes, though short ones. So if Kamui gets paired with one of the four she's familiar with, the most trouble she would have is with Tsubaki due to the fact that they didn't have a conversation before and she can only go off by rumors on how he acts (show-off, picky on every detail, etc.), whereas Owain is easier since he gets along with her and her brother, mainly the latter.

As she heard the teacher, Annias (or Anna for short) typing on her computer, Kamui swore to the gods that she overheard Anna quietly laughing to herself. Kamui wasn't the only one who heard their teacher's laughter as some of the students were whispering to each other that the pairs the computer has chosen were going to be… 'quite a show' as one student put it.

"Okay, class. Since there's an uneven amount of students in here, one group will be working in three, so let's name your partners starting with the group of three," Anna announced as she started to read off the names from the computer.

 _Oh gods, don't let me be in the group of three,_ Kamui begged in her mind. Potentially working with one stranger doesn't bother Kamui, but two?! No way!

Fortunately for Kamui, her name wasn't called out for the group of three. Safe.

But the rest were pairs, and she doesn't want to be paired off to someone who refuses to cooperate with her.

"Inigo and Peri," Anna said, stopping to read off the computer as she heard the light-blue haired boy scream 'NO' before slamming his head on the desk. "You'll be fine," Anna added as she continued on to the list.

Peri? Kamui assumes it's the girl with cotton-candy colored pigtails as she squealed when she heard she's being paired with Inigo. Well, at least one girl is happy to be paired with Inigo unlike most of them in this class.

"Anyway, someone in here is lucky to be with Mr. Perfect," Anna announced as several people were gasping on who would be with Tsubaki. "And that lucky student happens to be Kamui Hier."

 _This is going to be interesting,_ Kamui thought as she's thinking about how the project will go for her with Tsubaki. Well, at least she's not paired off with a total stranger (AKA: doesn't know his/her name).

As Anna is continuing to announce the assigned pairs to the class, Kamui turned around to see Tsubaki two desks behind her, smiling and waving at her, with the sandy blonde replying back with the same gesture. So far, not too bad.

Five minutes later, everyone in the class has been paired up and Anna is currently going over the assignment that's going to be due in a month from today. November 10th to be precise. Everyone is following along the paper Anna handed out a few minutes ago as the red-head is pointing out the important details in the assignment.

The assignment is that the students has to write a short story that's at least three pages long. Seems too simple for everyone.

"However, when your partner is done writing a paragraph, whether be it a description or a line of dialogue, the other one has to write the next one," Anna explained in detail. Already, she can hear some groans and comments on how one partner can ruin the story with a horrible paragraph and that they need to be with their partner for the whole assignment. "Hey, hey, hey. I know it sounds like torture..."

"It's already agony for me!" Inigo commented, pointing to Peri who has already moved next to his desk.

Ignoring that comment, Anna continued, "But I feel that this is unique way of getting everyone to have their part on the assignment rather than letting one person doing the entire project. And nobody wants that scenario to happen. Am I correct?"

"Yes," everyone answered to their teacher.

"Great. Now, to make this assignment easier for you and your partner, I suggest putting your short story on a Google Drive document or a similar program so you won't have to always be physically be with your partner. As for what type of short story to write..."

Kamui ended up jotting down several scenarios for the short story as she knew Tsubaki might ask her what type of genre they would go for. Just as long as horror isn't involved. Wait, like that would ever happen. Most of scenarios usually involve heartwarming moments between friends, romance between two people that started off as rivals, and one involving a family with a harsh environment on the inside despite having everything a kid would want.

"Hmm… Maybe the last topic seems harsh..." Kamui muttered to herself as she tried to think up another scenario that doesn't sound too mean-spirited. "What if… what if this character has to choose between two-"

"Kamui?" Anna cut Kamui's train of thought that the sandy blond ended up dropping her pen on the floor and let out a small gasp before picking her pen up.

"Uh… Yes?"

"It's great that you're eager to start the assignment right away, but try to keep your volume down a bit."

"Oh. Sorry about that," Kamui apologized. She wonders how Anna could even hear her despite her talking a bit quietly than usual. Maybe she does have a hawk's hearing. Or a dog's.

"It's fine. We have five minutes before class is over, but do you have any questions that doesn't involve switching partners?"

 _Well, now's the time._ Kamui thought as she placed her pen on top of her journal.

"Yeah, I do. Does the topic have to be school appropriate?"

"Anything is fine as long as it doesn't involve sex or harsh violence," Anna answered Kamui's question before asking the rest of the class, "So, does anyone else have any other questions?"

Nobody responded for five seconds, indicating that they either have no more questions at this point, or simply because it's Friday and everyone wants to go home and do nothing for the rest of the day. Hey, it's the last period of the day for everyone here.

"Alright!" Anna happily exclaimed. "The remaining time is yours, and I suggest using it to get your partner's contact info."

As soon as Anna sat down in her chair, half of the class bolted out of their seats and sat next to their partner, pulling out their phones from their backpacks or pockets and asking their partner for their phone number, or just saying 'hello' and attempting to make a conversation. Kamui was about to get up from her desk to sit next to Tsubaki, but the red-head already made his way to an empty desk next to Kamui, setting his backpack on the ground.

"Uh… hello," Kamui started to speak to him.

"Hello to you too, Kamui," Tsubaki replied back. "Like the teacher said, you're really lucky to have me as your partner. I'll make sure we'll get a perfect grade on this assignment."

"Great," Kamui smiled as she pulled her phone from her hoodie pocket. "So, can you give me your number so we can contact each other?"

Tsubaki didn't answer as he nodded 'yes' to Kamui before taking her phone and typing in his information on it. As Tsubaki is doing that, Kamui ripped a part of her notebook paper and wrote her contact info with it to give to her partner.

As she handed the small slip of paper to Tsubaki, the red head asked, "Do you have something planned after school?"

"I don't," Kamui replied as she got back her phone. Other than binge watching hilariously bad romantic comedies with Elise, nothing too important. Besides, the bad movie night can wait until tomorrow. "Did you want to discuss about what we should write for the short story? Because I had several topics in mind..."

"I had some ideas as well. We obviously don't have the time to discuss them here," Tsubaki pointed to the clock that has the minute hand almost at the 6, which means there's at least one minute before class is over. "So, I propose we meet at Rose's Thorn at 5 o'clock. Does that seem fine to you?"

"Yes it does!" Kamui happily answered. "My older sister, Camilla, actually owns the place. I better message her about you so she doesn't get the wrong idea."

"What does that mean?" Tsubaki wondered.

"Let's just say… She's a bit… protective of me, especially around boys she isn't familiar with."

As in, Camilla is fine with her siblings, one of her co-workers Jakob, and Silas being around with Kamui whenever Camilla is nearby. Any other boy… Not so good and really need to impress Camilla the first time, maybe second if she finds something interesting about that boy.

"But I'm sure Camilla will like you," Kamui reassured Tsubaki as the bell ringed, all the students rushing out of the classroom and going home. As Kamui got up from her desk, she said to Tsubaki, "Okay, then. I'll see you at Rose's Thorn! Later!" before leaving the classroom with her belongings.

* * *

Not too shortly after Kamui left, Tsubaki packed up his belongings and left the classroom and entered the hallway with the other students rushing to either to the bus loops or the front of the school, waiting for their parents to pick them up, walking home, or just simply drive off if they're lucky enough to own a car. As for Tsubaki, he has to take the public bus to get home.

He does have a driver's license, but there's only one car in his home and the car is rarely home whenever Tsubaki is awake due to his father's job. And whenever the car is home on a school day, his father wouldn't even let Tsubaki use the car for just one day and insists that he drive Tsubaki to school and be picked up by him, which Tsubaki refuses for… reasons.

Even then, he didn't mind taking the bus to get home from school. Tsubaki entered the public bus, swiped his bus pass on the transaction machine before taking his seat close to the front door of the bus. As Tsubaki pulled out his phone and started to input Kamui's contact info, he spotted Inigo and Owain entering the bus, alongside with a girl with absurdly long red pigtails named Severa who had her headphones on; possibly to not listen to the conversation between the two.

"Come on, Owain! I'd rather have demon face as my partner than Peri!" Inigo begged his blonde friend as they took their seats.

"Sorry, Inigo of the Azure Skies," Owain replied, pulling his phone to see if his partner, Oboro, has messaged him. "We must uphold the teacher's promise of not switching partners. Besides, Peri is ecstatic to be by your side, so at least you'll make her smile. Isn't that your job?"

"I guess so, but still! Didn't you hear what she said as we left class?"

"Something about how she declared that you two would be together for eternity? Didn't you say that you'd want a girl to say that to you?" Owain smiled as he asked Inigo.

"When I was six!" Inigo fired back to his friend. "I didn't want someone as crazy like Peri to say that to me."

"It'll be the only time you'll hear a girl say that," Severa added as she can clearly hear her two friends over her headphones.

Inigo didn't say anything after that as he heard both Owain and Severa laughing, along with some people who caught on to their conversation.

Not too shortly after, the bus started moving and the people that were still standing quickly sat down. Tsubaki would normally read a book to pass the time as it takes twenty minutes to get to his stop, but instead, he's thinking about what Kamui said earlier on her older sister, Camilla.

He did meet her once a few weeks ago while he was studying for an exam in his History class and the two of them had a conversation about the relationship between Sigurd and Deirdre during the Jugdral War; the main focus on his test. Tsubaki talked about how Sigurd's and Deirdre's marriage indivertibly caused destruction over the continent but eventually saved it due to their children, while Camilla focused on their romance and how tragically it ended. When their conversation was over, he can remember Camilla saying:

 _"That was quite fun chatting with you. We should do this the next time you visit."_

Also, during that conversation, they never gave out each other's name, though one of the workers mentioned that he was lucky to have a conversation with the owner of Rose's Thorn. And today, not only did he learned about the owner's name thanks to Kamui, but the fact that she and Camilla are actually related to each other!

Still, he's a bit worried about what might happen in less than two hours because of what Kamui said.

 _"_ _She's_ _a bit… protective of me, especially around boys she isn't familiar with."_

It might sound silly since Tsubaki has already met Camilla before, but now he wonders if the friendly tone with Camilla might fade away once he's around Kamui. Or worse…

 _"Stay the hell away from my precious Kamui, you_ _ **imperfect man**_ _!"_

 _There's no way she would ever say that. Right?_ Tsubaki worridly thought as he heard the text message tone from his phone. He looked at the screen and saw Kamui's name on there with a message:

 **_Kamui: Just mentioned you to Camilla and she's eager to see you. She said she_ _has_ _already met you. Is that true?_**

It didn't took Tsubaki a few seconds to reply back to Kamui.

 _ **Tsubaki: Yes. Two weeks ago to be exact.**_

 _ **Kamui: N**_ _ **o way**_ _ **! Anyway,**_ _ **are you planning to bring your laptop with you? That is, if you have one… (That's a dumb question -_-.)**_

 _ **Tsubaki: One, I do have a laptop like most people. Two, I'll bring my laptop with me, so don't worry about bringing yours. And three, that question isn't dumb, I promise.**_

 _ **Kamui: Alright then. Just be you**_ _ **rself**_ _ **and Camilla will really like you. See you at 5! :D**_ _ **(Oh, thank the gods...)**_

Tsubaki sighed at the last message as he has heard this advice from others multiple times throughout his life, and only tried it half of the time with varying results. Some were happy, others…

 _ **You must be perfect to get everyone to at least respect you. Anything less than that, the**_ _ **n you're worthless. Remember that.**_

"Of course I do," Tsubaki muttered to himself, remembering the words that are engraved in his mind.

 _I'm never less than perfect. I'll never be that as long as I live. Not today, tomorrow, or the days following that._

 _ **Good. Keep it up.**_

* * *

 **Author's Note: This is also on AO3 if you want to view it there. It was suppose to be released on Tsubaki's birthday (2/7), but it ended up being a bit late.**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!**


	2. Unlucky Streak

Before leaving her room, Kamui decided to double check herself in the mirror once again to see if there's anything out of place concerning her appearance. No loose strands on her hair, no stains on any of her clothes, nothing on her face.

"Perfect!" Kamui exclaimed, smiling that she's happy with how she looks and ready to meet Tsubaki at Rose's Thorn.

Kamui could have arrived with the outfit she wore to school, but decided to change into something more appropriate considering the circumstances she's in. One, it's hot for early October, and a hoodie wouldn't do compared to a short-sleeved blue shirt with stripes. Two, she wanted to look a bit nice for Tsubaki as she assumes he'll dress up in something nice as well. And three, because she's going to Camilla's workplace, Camilla is going to see the two juniors and assume the two are in a date.

Despite the fact that Kamui has specified in her text message that they're meeting for a school project. In short, a study date in Camilla's mind. Heavy emphasis on date.

Grabbing her gray purse and journal, Kamui walked out of her room, closing her door and making her way downstairs to the front door. Besides Kamui, there's no one at home. Both Xander and Camilla are at their jobs (Xander as a history teacher at a different high school and Camilla as the owner of her cafe), Leo is at the library and will later be at Owain's house for a short session of Dungeons & Dragons, while Elise is taking her violin lessons at a music studio (which she kind of forgot).

Before leaving, Kamui hurried to the kitchen where there's a message board with a dry-erase marker on top of it. As Kamui is scribbling her message on there just in case someone comes home early, her phone inside her purse vibrated, indicating a text message. Once she finished writing on the board, Kamui pulled her phone out of her purse and checked to see that Tsubaki has messaged her.

Reading the message, Kamui quickly put her phone back into her purse before yelling, "I gotta hurry!" and slipping on her blue flats before storming out of the house and to the bus stop due to the fact that both of the cars are gone.

Sighing as the bus isn't here, Kamui sat down on the bench where she decided to look at the various of scenarios she had came up with for the assignment. She had topics on romance, friendship, family complications, an epic adventure on one person deciding between two families, a girl from the future going back in time to save her family from a terrible fate…

"Wait, the last two seem too long for a short story. Maybe better for a novel or a video game," Kamui commented, crossing the last two scenarios from her journal. "Wonder if… No… Not sure if Tsubaki will like it..." Kamui added as she's now making swirls on her topics page.

Right as she closed her journal, the bus has arrived at the bus stop, and Kamui pulled her bus pass from her wallet as she waited for the people exiting from the bus before entering, swiping her card on the transaction machine and took her seat.

As she's waiting for the bus to move, she can overhear one of her classmates, Severa, talking to a girl with short black hair. Kamui assumes the girl Severa is talking to is from a different high school as she's sure she has never seen the black haired-girl in the hallways in school.

"...And right when I got my math test back, Mr. Perfect happens to get, once again, a higher score than me, and the highest test grade in the class. Again," Severa groaned as the bus started to leave the bus stop. "Can you believe that, Noire?!"

"Y… yeah. You studied really hard for that test," Noire nodded in agreement with her friend. "But shouldn't you be happy?"

"Happy for what?"

"Well… you got a 100 on your test. That's a pretty difficult score to obtain, especially in math," Noire reassured Severa, knowing that subject is the hardest in school.

"Not for Mr. Perfect! I got that 100 because I answered the extra credit question correctly. As for him," Severa growled on the last word, "He answered every question correctly, including the extra credit question, and got a freakin' 107! I thought that was impossible, but of course, he happened to accomplish that like it's child's play!"

"Good for him."

"Yeah, right. _**Mr. Perfect is just showing off that**_ _ **he's better than everyone else, which isn't**_ _ **even**_ _ **possible.**_ " Severa heavily sighed as she added, "Gawds, I really need some caffeine to forget about this."

 _Oh, my gods. Tsubaki…_ Kamui sighed in her thoughts after hearing Severa's comment on Tsubaki. _Do people really talk bad stuff behind your back?_

After listening to Severa's conversation, Kamui tries to remember the time some of her classmates negatively comment on Tsubaki.

 _He's such a showoff!_

 _Thinks he's better than everyone else…_

 _Perfect grades, perfect looks, perfect life!_ _Gods, it makes me sick to think that an asshole like him can have everything we want!_

 _Sure, he may seem nice, but he secretly thinks that everyone is inferior to him._

 _Wish he could just die already._

Kamui assumed that someone like Tsubaki would be respected by most of his peers, but it ends up being false as not everyone liked him. Or worse, completely despise him that they'd be glad if Tsubaki is dead.

She even remembered someone saying a "word on advice" concerning about the red-head.

 _"I'd avoid him if I were you. And if you do get paired up with him for a project, just pretend to like him and ditch him once it's over."_

Of course, Kamui knew better not to listen to that horrible advice. She won't know if Tsubaki is a really kind or a terrible person if she doesn't get to know him. And she has at least a month to know him better, starting with the short story assignment.

 _Wait a minute…_ Kamui thought as she pulled her pen and started to write on her journal, finally thinking on a topic that she hopes she can write.

Now only if the bus can stop so her handwriting doesn't look like crap.

* * *

 _ **Kamui: On my way, Tsubaki!**_ _ **I didn't know you'd be there early…**_

 _ **Tsubaki: It's fine. If it's okay with you, I already ordered our drinks for us, and I was wondering if you wanted something else like a slice of cake or pie.**_

 _ **Kamui:**_ _ **Is there apple pie?**_

 _ **Tsubaki: Yes? Why?**_

 _ **Kamui: It's only there on Friday, and it's the best one I've tasted in my life! Don't worry, I'll pay for it… Be there in two minutes!**_

4:58. It's been almost a half-hour since Tsubaki arrived at Rose's Thorn and is currently waiting for Kamui, with his laptop open on a blank document. Tsubaki didn't even planned to order anything in here, but one of the workers pressured him to get something or leave the cafe. That sounds a bit absurd to him as no other cafe did this to him, but not wanting to frustrate the worker, Tsubaki ordered one vanilla chai for him while a cinnamon mocha for Kamui.

Okay, the drink for Kamui was purely a guess since he doesn't know if she likes cinnamon or not. Or maybe she prefers tea over coffee… Too late to change orders since he already payed for them.

A bell chimed as some girls were entering the cafe, one of them happens to be Severa, the other a black haired girl wearing a green sweater, and one last girl that happened to rush into the cafe…

"Oh, thank the gods. Barely just in time..."

"Kamui!" Tsubaki exclaimed happily that she arrived.

"Oh, hey Tsubaki! Be right there," Kamui replied, already on the line waiting to order her apple pie.

While waiting for Kamui to order her dessert, Tsubaki pulled out his phone as it had some of his ideas for the assignment he really hopes they write about. If not, then surely Kamui's ideas were as good as his. But the chances of that are the same as a coin toss.

"Sir, your drinks are ready."

Tsubaki looked to see a girl with light-blue downward pigtails carrying a tray containing the drinks, both having whip cream on top and a cookie straw on them.

"It's still hot, so be careful," the waitress advised as she placed the cups onto the table, along with some napkins since there's not a napkin dispenser in the table. "Enjoy."

Right as the waitress left the table, Kamui is carrying two plates of apple pie and sat in the remaining seat on their table.

Curious on the second pie, Tsubaki asked, "Are you seriously going to eat two slices of that?"

Giggling at that question, Kamui answered, "No, silly." as she pushed the plate to Tsubaki, along with giving him a fork.

"Really?" Tsubaki questioned Kamui's gesture for him to have the pie.

"Yep. Can't think on just coffee," Kamui stated as she took a bite of her apple pie. "Oh, gods! This is sooo good!"

Tsubaki then followed Kamui's example as it's been a while since he had a slice of pie; mainly apple. He'll admit it, this pie actually isn't too bad. Better than the ones from the store and in some bakeries.

"Did your sister made this?" Tsubaki asked, taking another bite of the pie.

"Oh, no. She does make some sweets sometimes, but it was Jakob who made this," Kamui answered.

AKA, the person who 'persuaded' Tsubaki into buying drinks in the first place.

"But anyway, can I see your ideas for the assignment?" Kamui requested as she started to eat the whip cream off from the cookie straw.

"Only if I can see yours," Tsubaki replied, giving the blond his phone as Kamui handed him her journal. He opened it to see several ideas jotted down, with two of them crossed out and one of them messily written, though still legible. That one interested him, no not because of the different handwriting compared to the others, but because of the topic.

As Kamui scrolled through Tsubaki's phone that listed the potential topics for the assignment, Tsubaki started to speak, "Kamui, can I ask you something?" pointing to the last topic.

"Is it about the crappy handwriting?" Kamui guessed. "That happened because I wrote that on the bus."

"No, it's not that. Well, before I start asking the question, the topic is probably the most interesting one out of them all."

Kamui looked at the topic she wrote, ignoring the slanted letters she wrote. The topic Kamui has written reads: _The star student loved yet hated by others attempting to face her harsh reality hidden from others._ She expected Tsubaki to have second thoughts on it, or say it's good, but not fantastic. Instead, this one might be a contender for the short story topic.

"Y… You really mean it?" Kamui asked, wanting to be sure if what Tsubaki is saying isn't a lie.

"Absolutely," Tsubaki confirmed. "I mean, I thought about my topics and thought were perfect for this assignment..."

Kamui checked the list on Tsubaki's phone to see the topics he had. The feeling of losing hope, acceptance from their peers, choosing between personal dreams versus and ones from parents, and a progression from suicide to feeling better about themselves in their high school life. Interesting yet dark topics compared to Kamui's heartwarming topics (most of them at least).

"...But I never thought you'd come up with something so…" Tsubaki paused to think up a word to describe the topic, but failing to do so. "Gods, it's kind of difficult what words to say."

 _Especially with a topic like that,_ Kamui thought.

"Anyway, I want to know what inspired-"

CRASH!

Both Kamui and Tsubaki, along with most of the people, turned their attention to the front counter where the loud noise came from. Not too shortly after, Peri is catching a girl with pink hair tied into a ponytail, with the latter carrying a tray with three cups of coffee and a whole pie with the top filled with whip cream.

Kamui knew that the pink-haired girl, Felicia, has been working here since the cafe opened and is trying to not mess up any of the customer's orders while getting it quickly to them. What surprised Kamui is that Peri works here since she's wearing the white shirt and black skirt uniform that all female employees must wear. Though how someone so crazy and childish like Peri could get a job like this is beyond Kamui's mind.

"You ruined that drink! Give it to me, or else!" Peri threatened, chasing Felicia with a spatula.

"I only added an extra teaspoon of sugar on the mocha! I'm sure they won't mind!" Felicia replied, trying to avoid a ravage bashing from her co-worker. As she's avoiding Peri, Felicia is trying to keep everything on the tray in balance as she doesn't want the group of three she's serving to be mad for ruining their order.

Unfortunately…

"Right where I want you!" Peri exclaimed, swinging her spatula at Felicia's arm, causing the pink-haired worker to wince in pain before she felt both of Peri's hands in her wrists.

"Gods, Peri. Let go of me," Felicia pleaded as she's enduring her co-worker's tight grip.

"Not until you give me the tray."

"No! They've been waiting for fifteen minutes, and I'd hate for them to wait any longer."

"I said, GIVE IT!" Peri yelled as she tugged Felicia's arms harshly, causing one drink and the pie from the tray to fly off, and unfortunately landing on Tsubaki; the coffee landing on his black pants and the pie landing on the top of his red hair.

Tsubaki didn't say anything for a few seconds, but he ended up looking at the mess at himself, hands shaking and ignoring the people laughing at this disaster. In particular, he can hear Severa laughing loudly, falling off her seat and attempting to pull out her phone, with the chance to catch Mr. Perfect looking so messy and properly humiliated.

 _I hate this_ _,_ Tsubaki thought as he's sure that he's the main attraction of this late afternoon. _God, please make this end!_

"-ir? Sir? Sir?"

Tsubaki turned around to see Felicia, no longer carrying the tray, with a frown in her face and her eyes attempting to fight the tears from coming out. She bowed down, frantically saying, "Oh, my gods. I am so, so, so sorry! I didn't mean to do this, I swear!"

The red-head didn't say anything to the pink-haired employee.

"Oh, gods… This isn't good..." Felicia knew that while Tsubaki isn't clenching his fists or glaring at her, hearing no response out of him is probably the worse thing Felicia can experience. Sure, it's probably to spare her from his wrath, but she feared that he'll talk about the clumsy employee behind her back. And she never likes it when people talk viciously about others when others aren't around.

"Tsubaki?" Kamui attempted to get her partner to speak, snapping her fingers in front of his face.

No response.

"Hey!" Kamui tried again, waving her hands in front of him.

Nothing.

"I can't believe it came to this…" Kamui muttered before she breathed deeply and slapped Tsubaki in the face, causing the red-head to jump out of his seat and closing his laptop before grabbing it quickly.

The sound of this caused everyone in the cafe to cease what they were doing. Even the employees stopped making the drinks or treats to see the scene with Kamui and Tsubaki.

"Why…?" Tsubaki can only say, taking a step backwards as Kamui is getting closer to him. "Why, Kamui?"

"Tsubaki, I am so sorry that I slapped you," Kamui said, trying to grab his hand. "You didn't respond to me, so I had little choice in order for you to say something."

"I…"

Tsubaki backed up farther from Kaumi right when she was close to him. He knew that Kamui didn't mean to hurt him on purpose, but that incident was similar to another one that he can't dare to forget, no matter how hard he tries.

 _ **Don't you even dare come closer to me you piece of shit.**_

"-okay?"

 _ **Are you deaf? Stay away**_ _ **from me!**_

"-no choice but to take him to our house…"

 _ **You've asked for it…**_

"-Tsubaki…"

 **Please, no… I beg of you… Don't do this to me.**

* * *

The clock reads 6:00 PM; almost a half-hour since the unfortunate incident. But for Kamui, it felt like forever the moment she left Rose's Thorn with Camilla and Tsubaki.

Kamui can remember Camilla coming out of the back of the kitchen and wondering what was going on due to hearing some loud chattering from the customers before it was silenced with a loud slap. By the time Camilla arrived, Tsubaki was muttering random words as his eyes were starting to form tears, losing his grip on the laptop.

The two sisters agreed that Tsubaki should be taken to their home so he can not only shower, but so his clothes can be washed due to the lack of a washing machine in the store, let alone a laundromat nearby. Besides, they didn't know where Tsubaki's house is, and getting the directions from Tsubaki might be difficult in his distressed state. And getting him into the car wasn't an easy task as Camilla had to carry him out of the cafe and into Camilla's car.

As Kamui is waiting for Tsubaki to finish showering in the downstairs bathroom, Kamui is sitting on the living room couch with her own laptop sitting on top of her black skirt, creating a document on her Google Drive account. Since Tsubaki has approved on her topic, it seems fair for her to start the first paragraph, along with creating a title for the story.

However, as she's finishing up typing the title and starting on the first paragraph, her phone vibrated from her skirt pocket (yes, they were real) and from the front screen, Camilla had messaged her.

 _ **Camilla: Back at work. Nothing went wrong while I was gone, but… Let's just say you don't want your partner to know,**_ _ **let alone see 'this'**_ _ **. Also, have fun home alone~!**_ _ **I left some spaghetti at the kitchen table, all heated up. I doubt he would want coffee and pie after that incident.**_

This isn't already going to be good based on her sister's message. Quickly going to the messages, when she checked Camilla's section, there was not only her latest message but…

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"

Kamui turned around to see Tsubaki, out of the shower with his hair down, and his loud voice almost caused her to drop her phone to the ground, along with letting her laptop slip from her lap. Thank the gods it didn't fall, yet that's the least of her worries…

"T-Tsubaki!" Kamui can only say as she locked her phone despite the fact that action felt pointless. "Please don't scare me like that."

"Sorry," Tsubaki said, sitting down next to the sandy blond. "But I didn't expect… well… OH, GODS!" He snatched the nearest pillow, planting his face into it before screaming and lying down on the couch.

Concerned about him, Kamui placed her laptop on the coffee table and placed her hand onto Tsubaki's head, still a bit wet from his shower. She then slowly stroked his hair, in hopes he would calm down a little bit and talk to her. While doing so, Kamui noticed that Tsubaki's hair, while still drying, is really soft, and can easily brush it on her fingers. He must have spent a lot of time to take care of it in order to be this soft, especially since whip cream and chocolate syrup were stuck on his hair. Not to mention his hair… has a floral aroma…

 _Oh, gods! W_ _hat the hell am I doing?_ Kamui thought as she noticed she was too close to Tsubaki. Guess she didn't noticed that she was leaning in towards him. Quickly, she pulled away from Tsubaki before she got off the couch and went to the kitchen, grabbing two plates and forks from the cabinet. She knows that they ate, but they only managed to finish at least half of it, and assumes that Tsubaki has room for spaghetti.

As Camilla stated in her message, the pot of spaghetti, sauce and pasta all mixed together, is in the kitchen table and used the tongs to grab a generous amount of noodles into both plates. Honestly, she didn't take into account how much Tsubaki eats, but once again assumes that it's something to fill him up for three to five hours.

Balancing both plates on her hands, Kamui made her way from the kitchen and back to the living room where she still sees Tsubaki has his face on the pillow, his words muffled. Sighing, Kamui placed both plates on the coffee table while it's away from her laptop.

"You want some spaghetti, Tsubaki?" Kamui offered the red head.

Tsubaki's attempt to answer the sandy blond ended up being difficult to hear due to the pillow on his face.

"What?" Kamui confused on what he's saying, grabbing her plate from the table. "I won't understand unless you get your face out of the pillow."

Tsubaki lifted his face off the pillow, then placed said pillow into the end of the couch before replying to Kamui, "I said sure. At least it won't badly stain my current attire."

As in, he's wearing Xander's black long-sleeved t-shirt and gray sweatpants for the time being while his clothes are getting washed.

"You think he'll mind it that I'm wearing his clothes?" Tsubaki asked Kamui as he grabbed his plate of spaghetti.

"As long as we explain it to him, then it's okay," Kamui answered, taking a bite of her spaghetti. As she was devouring her pasta, Kamui heard a short ringtone that she's not familiar with, assuming that it's coming from Tsubaki's phone. And the sound kept repeating itself every couple of seconds, with Tsubaki being annoyed with that sound, clenching his fork tightly in his hand.

It wasn't until a minute later that Tsubaki hesitantly picked up his phone and placed his plate on top of his lap, hoping it won't fall off while he's checking who texted him.

He really wished he didn't check his phone a second ago.

 _ **Hinata: Got yourself in a sticky situation, eh Baki~? Haha! Joking aside,**_ _ **hope you feel better. o_o/**_

 _ **Oboro: Jeez, did one of the employees did this to you on accident or on purpose?**_

 _ **Sakura: Oh,**_ _ **my goodness! Do you need a hug?**_

 _ **Hana: Holy crap! What happened? Did the employees tried to make a dish out of you?**_ _ **You look so ridiculous!**_ _ **(Seriously though, get yourself cleaned up…) -_-**_

While he's glad that some of the text messages that he received weren't that bad (such as Sakura's for instance), the one thing that all of them had in common was a picture of him in Rose's Thorn with his hair a mess, some of the chocolate syrup dripping onto his white shirt and blue tie. The same picture Camilla sent to Kamui.

After reading the four messages, a couple more were popping up, mentioning the events that happened at Rose's Thorn a half-hour ago. Tsubaki didn't dare check on them as they'll probably say the same thing and the picture will show up.

Ignoring the text tone, Tsubaki carelessly tossed his phone to the floor, not caring if it ends up broken or if there's a crack on the screen.

"Tsubaki!" Kamui exclaimed, picking up his phone from the ground. She looked at the screen to see that there were more messages; some of the names being unfamiliar to her. Regardless, they're all about 'that' incident.

"Why did this happen to me?" Tsubaki questioned, now eating his pasta in a faster pace than Kamui did earlier.

"You know what happened," Kamui answered, setting Tsubaki's phone on the coffee table. "It was all an accident. And if you want point fingers at someone…"

Which is something she doesn't like to do.

"… Peri was the one responsible who caused this mess. Literally and figuratively," Kamui said. "But even then…"

"It was an accident, like you said," Tsubaki finished Kamui's sentence as he got another bite of the spaghetti. "If she were to do that on purpose, she would have taken the tray-"

"And cover us with whip cream and chocolate syrup," Kamui concluded.

Tsubaki stopped eating when heard the last part.

"I thought it would be just me," Tsubaki added. "Why would you say that?"

"Well… It might be unbearable to endure all the humiliation on your own. I figured if that happened, I'd lightened the mood and make you laugh."

"Like…?" Tsubaki wondered as he imagined if Kamui joined in the disaster.

"Like eat the whip cream from your hair for instance." Kamui responded by touching Tsubaki's bangs with her hand, still soft and now completely dry. "Gods, your hair is so soft. What did you use, my sister's shampoo and conditioner?"

"Uh…" Tsubaki decided to place his plate on the coffee table as he's trying to answer Kamui's question. "Well… there was a purple container on the shower stall..."

Kamui took a few seconds to realize what the red-head answered to her before she burst out laughing, she forgot that she had spaghetti in her mouth! She coughed a little bit before chewing the remains of her pasta and swallowing it. Once that's over with, she set her spaghetti on the coffee table before she continued to laugh a little bit.

Face blushing red from embarrassment, Tsubaki was confused on why Kamui is laughing over his answer. Curious, he asked, "What? Did I use body wash instead of shampoo?"

"No. It's that you actually used my sister's..." Kamui didn't finish her sentence as she started to laugh again, falling off from the couch and to the wooden floor. Fortunately for her, there was a rug below, so it didn't hurt as much. "Oh, sorry about that. I wouldn't think you'd use a shampoo for girls." she added as she got off her back from the floor.

"I always want my hair to smell nice whenever I shower!" Tsubaki exclaimed. "I've done it since Elementary-"

 _Crap, Tsubaki! Don't say anything at this point!_ Tsubaki's mind screamed as he ended up covering his mouth, not completing his sentence.

"Uh… What was that last part about using girl's shampoo since childhood?" Kamui questioned the red-head.

 _I'm screwed!_

"Well, the reason behind that is… personal," Tsubaki started to explain, crossing his arms. "I-"

"Oh, no! You don't have to explain it if it makes you uncomfortable," Kamui reassured Tsubaki from revealing parts of his background that he might have trouble explaining. Even if it does involve something as small such as Tsubaki using girly shampoo at a young age. "Sorry if I almost made you brought it up."

"It's fine," Tsubaki sighed as he looked at Kamui's laptop, her screen showing a document with a couple of words. It didn't take him too long to read what Kamui currently has and asked, "Did you really name our short story 'Pancakes'?"

Oops.

Embarrassed, Kamui snatched the laptop from the coffee table and to her lap before exclaiming, "It was just a placeholder title!"

"I see." Tsubaki's mind for the past hour was still on the incident at Rose's Thorn and he remembered the question he wanted to ask Kamui before he was interrupted from… that. "Kamui, about the short story..."

"What inspired it?" Kamui remembered, staring at the screen, trying to find the right words for the first paragraph. Sighing, Kamui answered, "Remember when I said I wrote the topic at the bus?"

Tsubaki nodded yes. Writing while a vehicle was moving is a difficult task and keeping the handwriting as neat as possible is easier said than done.

"Well, I came up with that topic because…"

 _ **"**_ _ **Mr. Perfect is just showing off that**_ _ **he's better than everyone else, which isn't**_ _ **even**_ _ **possible."**_

"I overheard Severa talking to her friend," Kamui started to explain, "About how annoyed she was with you being perfect."

Tsubaki can only sigh and reply with, "Is that it?"

"No. After she was done, I remember some hurtful comments people said about you, and I especially remember how someone said you should… Well… Be gone."

Silence followed, besides the beep from the dryer indicating that Tsubaki's clothes were finished drying. However, none of them didn't decide to pick up his clothes. Kamui is just waiting for Tsubaki's reaction, while the red-head is trying to take this information in his head.

 _The star student loved yet hated by others attempting to face her harsh reality hidden from others._ Tsubaki thought it meant someone else at school such as Takumi or Severa, but he didn't expect that HE'S the inspiration for the entire topic. Besides the obvious, the topic brings Tsubaki a little bit too close to home; especially the last part. But still…

"If you want to change topics, then it's okay," Kamui suggested, lowering her laptop screen down and looking up at Tsubaki, still at the couch.

"No, no. It's fine," Tsubaki replied, getting off the couch and sat down on the ground next to Kamui. "Besides, it's not everyday I'm the inspiration for a story." Tsubaki smiled and placed his fingers onto Kamui's sandy blond locks.

"Aw! You must feel special."

"Yeah… Can't wait to write my parts."

Right as Tsubaki is brushing through Kamui's locks, feeling how smooth her hair is, the two juniors heard the front door creek open, along with some footsteps that were getting louder and louder until…

"Big sister!"

Kamui turned to see Elise behind her, giving the junior no time to say 'hello' to Elise when the younger sister happily hugged her older sister.

"Elise!" Kamui greeted the young blond. "How was violin practice?"

"It was great! I played my piece without making any mistakes for the first-" Elise stopped speaking when she noticed Tsubaki sitting next to her big sister, and is brushing her locks with his hands. Elise asked him, "Who are you, sir?"

"I'm Tsubaki Miyazaki," he introduced himself to Elise. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"You too! I'm Kamui's adorable younger sister, Elise!" she replied as she shook Tsubaki's free hand. "So, what you doing here in our house?"

"We're doing a project involving a short story-"

"Called 'Pancakes'?!" Elise tried to finish Tsubaki's sentence as she spotted the title when Kamui lifted the laptop screen up. "Is it about pancakes?!"

"N… no!" both Kamui and Tsubaki responded.

"It's a placeholder title!" Kamui added. "Besides, we just started!"

Not too shortly, the three heard some footsteps coming closer to them, with Kamui turning around in time to see Xander, black coat and dark purple tie off from his white buttoned shirt.

"Nice to see you at home, little princess," Xander replied to Kamui using the nickname he still likes to use around her when they were younger. The eldest noticed Tsubaki, currently wearing his clothes and hands on Kamui's hair. "Can anyone tell me why-"

"It's a long and embarrassing story, Xander," Kamui interrupted her brother as she got up from the floor, setting the laptop onto the couch before exclaiming, "Right now, I need to get Tsubaki's clothes from the dryer!"

Kamui knew that she heard the beep a few minutes ago, but didn't bother to get the clothes earlier as she wanted to hear Tsubaki's reaction about him being the main attraction for their topic.

As Kamui is in the pantry retrieving the finished clothes, Elise sat on the couch and read the paragraph from the laptop that Kamui typed for the time being. Meanwhile, Tsubaki stood up and ended up meeting Xander's eyes glaring at him; probably because Tsubaki touched Kamui's hair and that he was alone with her in the house. Unexpectedly.

"Uh… Hi…"

Of all the phrases in his head, Tsubaki had to go with a simple 'hi' to Kamui's older brother! First impressions for him is looking… _average_ at best.

"Xander, is it?"

"Yes," the older blond replied, still staring at Tsubaki. "And you must be Tsubaki. Correct?"

"Yes, sir," Tsubaki answered, though a bit fast as Xander does scare him a bit despite the latter not glaring at him for the time being.

"I'd prefer it if you'd call me by my first name."

Especially after a long day of being referred to as Mr. Hier by his students and staff alike.

"Anyway, I've overheard from you that you're working on a project with Kamui, so how'd you end up in my clothes?" asked Xander.

Oh, gods. Tsubaki didn't want to remember that event again. Yet he doesn't want to lie to Xander. This is going to suck.

Taking a deep breath, Tsubaki answered, "Long story short, I ended up getting some food on my hair and clothes at Rose's Thorn by an employee on accident." He didn't have to explain anymore as he knows that Xander can fit the pieces together just with that information alone. As in mess equals clothes getting cleaned and possibly taking a shower.

"I see," Xander understood the red-head's situation. "Though I think Kamui will give me the whole story."

 _And everything embarrassing about it!_ Tsubaki commented in his thoughts.

As if on cue, Kamui rushed back to the living room, carrying Tsubaki's clothes that are currently folded.

"Here you go," Kamui said, giving Tsubaki back his clothes, free of any stains and feeling warm on Tsubaki's hands. Clean clothes are the best feeling to him. "Feel free to change in the bathroom if you want."

Expecting Tsubaki to say 'thank you' and change, Kamui let out a little 'Eep!' when the red-head hugged her without any warning, both of his hands on her waist and holding her tightly as if he might not see her for a long time. Kamui's only response is to wrap her arms around Tsubaki's waist as well, hands on his red, soft locks.

"Thanks, Kamui," Tsubaki replied close to Kamui's ear before ending the hug.

"Y… Yeah. No problem," Kamui answered back to the red-head, face blushing red after hearing his voice. Gods, it's so sexy up close! "Can't believe how this day went."

"I know, but it wasn't all that bad..."

 _Because of_ _you,_ Tsubaki wanted to say, but decided against it as he held his folded clothes tightly and made his way to the bathroom to change out of Xander's clothes and into his familiar attire.

Now that Tsubaki is out of sight for now, Elise, still looking at Kamui's laptop, asked her sister, "So, did you see him without his shirt?"

"What?! N… No, of course not!" Kamui replied, even more embarrassed as she's imagining the red-head shirtless. It's enough to see how Tsubaki looks pretty with his hair down and hearing his voice up close, but now there's something she'll have in her mind the next time she's dreaming.

And probably the next few days…

* * *

Unlocking his front door, Tsubaki slipped off his brown shoes in favor for his red slippers as he climbed up the stairs and into his room, plopping his back onto his bed. It's only been like an hour since he left Kamui's house, and two hours since the incident at Rose's Thorn, but it felt like an eternity for both of them due to the circumstances he was in.

Well, he can relax for now. The messages about the incident in the cafe has died down and he doesn't have to worry about taking a shower tonight. And maybe dinner since he did ate some of the spaghetti at Kamui's house. For now, he can focus on getting his part done on the assignment after exchanging e-mails, change out of his attire he wore just for Rose's Thorn, and let his hair-

Huh?

He looked in the mirror and realized that his hair is still down. Not only that…

"Shit. I left it at her house."

No pink flower on him.

* * *

 _Report cards have been released today at school. For most students, they couldn't dare look at the grades they've gotten, fearing they might get a low grade on their hated subject_ _and get teased by their friends due to said bad grades. For Tsubomi Minami, she doesn't have to worry about either of those._ _H_ _er report card is filled with all A's, nothing below a 9_ _0_ _, and never missing class at all for this grading period._ _Her friends and fellow classmates congratulated Tsubomi on getting high marks on every class, especially in her AP classes. Other classmates weren't too happy with the girl getting good grades, calling her a 'nerd' and a 'show-off' when she wasn't there. But like always, Tsubomi knows better than to ignore those types of classmates._

 **Yet while she can ignore some of her jealous classmates' comments,** **it's not easy for Tsubomi to break down the moment she enters her room; the comments still fresh in her mind.**

 _Perfect bitch. Stuck-up slut. A robot. A shut-in freak._

 **The list goes on. Those names from students who don't truly know her. Only going off from their observations from her when she isn't aware. But that's at school. No one knows what goes on in Tsubomi's life outside of school. Most of them assume she's doing homework and studying instead of goofing off. While that's true, there's more to it she feels uncomfortable talking about to anyone. Even to her counselor, who's a long time family friend to Tsubomi's mother. If only there was someone that she can share her troubles with. Someone who accepts others without a second thought.**

* * *

 **Author's Note: At the end of each chapter, you can read the actual short story Kamui and Tsubaki are writing: "Pancakes"! Title is a placeholder as Kamui stated...**

 **Italic is written by Kamui and Bold written by Tsubaki.**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!**

 **Later! ;D**


	3. Not a Date, Right?

Even if was a day late, Kamui and Elise were watching a romantic-drama movie on the TV screen, eating popcorn that was slightly burnt due to Elise putting it in the microwave a bit longer than the suggested time. More specifically, a bad one Camilla watched when she was in college… Hence bad movie night. Or bad movie _day_ since they were watching it in the afternoon.

Besides the popcorn, the two girls have a six-pack of sparkling water (strawberry flavored of course) with them to drink. However, they have to drink it only when they see the characters in the movie do something dumb, or say a certain phrase that's been repeated in the movie. In short, the non-alcoholic version of the drinking game. Even sparkling water didn't save the two from stopping the movie for a bathroom break every twenty minutes.

 _"You_ _are_ _tearing me apart, Lisa_ _!"_ the main male lead screamed to the blond woman in a very awkward tone.

"There's the line!" Elise pointed at the screen as she chugged on the can of sparkling water.

"Oh boy…" Kamui can only say as she started to drink her can. No, not because of how the actor said the line (that only is cringe worthy), but the fact she has to drink the entire can! Now if she were drinking alcohol while hearing this dumb line (and the movie as a whole)… Gods, she'd be a mess.

Elise managed to do it quickly in one go while Kamui had to finish the can in just two takes since the latter snickered at the character's line delivery after the infamous line. No wonder Camilla 'recommend' this film to Kamui to watch on bad movie night/day.

As Kamui is about to grab another can of sparkling water, her phone placed on the coffee table vibrated, the screen lit as it displayed a message. Curious as to who it was, Kamui picked up the phone since she stopped caring for the movie seriously right at the ten-minute mark. Elise noticed her older sister looking at her phone instead of the screen, so the young blond paused the movie to see what's up with Kamui.

While Kamui is reading the message, Elise leaned a bit and asked, "Who messaged you, big sister?"

"Just my partner," Kamui responded as she typed her message to Tsubaki.

"You mean, your boy-"

"No," Kamui interrupted Elise's sentence, knowing too well what the younger sibling is going to say. Just because Elise saw Kamui and Tsubaki together doesn't automatically make them a couple. "Besides, I just recently got to know him."

"Oh, really… Like what do you know about him?"

Kamui got off the couch and started to leave the living room, with Elise following her. As she made her way to the bathroom door, she answered to Elise, "Like the fact he has high grades…"

"Just like Leo!" Elise added. "What else?"

"Well, he uses girl's shampoo and conditioner, and he's nicknamed Mr. Perfect by most of his classmates," Kamui continued to answer Elise's question as she opened the bathroom door to see a pink flower clip, close to the sink. Kamui grabbed the hair clip and exited out of the bathroom and back to the living room.

As the two were sitting down at the couch, Elise looked at the hair clip Kamui is holding, and asked, "Ooh! It's pretty! Did we buy it?"

Kamui shook her head 'no' as she can remember that no one has a hair clip like this.

"Promise you won't laugh?" Kamui requested Elise, knowing who's the actual owner of the hair clip. The young blond eagerly nodded her head in response, and Kamui answered, "It's Tsubaki's."

Elise didn't know what to say until, "R-really?! Something that pretty belongs to a guy?!"

"H-hey now… Some guys wear hair clips…" Kamui said to Elise as if the younger girl has never seen a guy wear hair clips. Especially ones that look feminine like the one Kamui is holding. "Anyway, he told me to give it to him on Monday, so-"

"But why not now?" Elise questioned her sister, grabbing another can of sparkling water since she emptied the last one from the cringe worthy line in movie history.

"Uh…" Oh, boy. Elise did get Kamui good with that question. "Honestly, he never told me…"

"What? That's really strange…" Elise added. "So, what else do you know-"

"Elise, I told you everything I know about Tsubaki," Kamui stated.

"Eh? Is that all?"

Kamui can only nod before looking back at her phone. As Kamui is giving a reply to Tsubaki, Elise has an idea popped in her head that will surely be for the best, especially for Kamui. With no hesitation, Elise snatched Kamui's phone and searched for the contacts list where she looked for Tsubaki's name on there.

"E-Elise!" Kamui yelled at her younger sister. "What are you doing?"

"Getting Tsubaki on the phone for you," Elise replied, still trying to find his name. "Uh… Where is his name? I thought it would be on 'S'."

"His name starts with a 'T'."

Smiling that she doesn't have to search for the name as long as she thought, Elise quickly scrolled down to the 'T' section, and lo and behold, she finds Tsubaki's name in there and pressed the call button before handing the phone to Kamui.

Hearing the phone tone, Kamui hopes that Tsubaki doesn't pick up since she literally has nothing planned out to say to him! Maybe a little 'hello' and 'how are you doing' to make the conversation less awkward, but other than those obvious phrases, nothing.

Unfortunately to Kamui's luck…

 _"_ _Kamui?"_

He picked up and now Kamui has the pleasure of hearing his voice. Oh gods, his pleasant sounding voice…

"Uh…. Hi, Tsubaki!" Kamui started the phone conversation, looking back at Elise, seeing that she's hugging a nearby pillow, squealing on what's to come out of this phone call. "I'm sorry about this… You see, Elise decided it would be a good idea to call you since I don't know a lot about you."

 _"_ _Is that so?"_ Tsubaki wondered.

"Well, after telling my sister about you, it's unfortunately true," Kamui confirmed as she heard Elise screaming 'I knew it!' in the background. "Besides, you never got to know much about me either, besides the fact I have a lot of siblings."

 _"_ _And it seems fair that we should know each other more by meeting outside of school."_ Tsubaki added, getting the gist of what Kamui is saying.

"By that, it means little to no school work involved. Is that right?"

 _"_ _Yes. So anyway, I wanted to ask you something."_

Kamui can hear Elise squealing right when Tsubaki said this. "Go on."

 _"_ _Do you know, by any chance, about Izumo Center?"_

"Yeah. It's the mall with four floors. Camilla has been there twice. Why?"

 _"_ _Well, you want to go there with me tomorrow? No school work involved, I assure you."_

Kamui had to take a moment to respond to Tsubaki's request. They've only known each other for a short while and have little knowledge of each other besides the fact they attend the same school and are in the same grade. And going out with a classmate like Tsubaki comes only once in a while (or forever in some cases). Besides, like Tsubaki said, meeting each other outside of school is a good way to know someone.

Sighing, Kamui smiled and answered, "Sure thing. What time do you want us to meet?"

 _"_ _1_ _2_ _o'clock. And I won't_ _arrive_ _thirty minutes early like… Well, you know…"_

At Rose's Thorn. Kamui knew that any mention of that place might bring bad memories to Tsubaki.

"I got it," Kamui said, hearing Elise screaming 'Yes!' in the background. "The bus stop at my neighborhood will take me to Izumo Center no problem."

 _"_ _Alright. But, are you_ _r siblings going_ _to_ _be okay with it_ _?"_ Tsubaki asked, having some thoughts about Xander and Camilla, especially the former.

"Hmm… Let's see…" Kamui looked at Elise, who's currently squealing, lying down on the couch as she's listening to their conversation.

Elise wouldn't mind if Kamui is gone for most of the day if she gives a good reason, Leo would let Kamui be, Camilla is fine as long as it's someone she trust, but Xander… He just wants Kamui to be safe and sound whenever she goes out; even when she's at school. Outside of school, he might ask someone (Leo mainly) to secretly keep an eye on Kamui without her noticing.

With that in mind, Kamui stated, "Not at all. I just need to inform them so they don't send someone to follow us tomorrow."

 _"Wha…_ _?"_ Tsubaki said, confused on the last thing Kamui stated. _"Oh, well. So I'll see you tomorrow then?"_

"Absolutely, Tsubaki. Good-bye."

As Kamui ended the call, Elise clapped her hands and jumped on the couch exclaiming, "Yay, big sister! You did it, and it's all because of me!"

"Well, thanks for calling Tsubaki, Elise. If you didn't, then I wouldn't get to go out on a Sunday."

Because Sundays is saved for doing homework and reading books for Kamui. However, that's going to be saved for next Sunday.

"Ooh. So, should I tell everyone about this, or should you?" Elise asked, now sitting down and ready to watch this god-awful movie.

"I probably should. As long Xander doesn't send anyone behind my back," Kamui said as she grabbed the remote to resume the movie.

For now, she shouldn't worry about tomorrow. She should enjoy watching this horrible movie with Elise and laugh at every line delivery the actors say.

* * *

"Holy crap, Baki! I didn't expect you to ask Kamui out on a date!" Hinata exclaimed, feet on the table.

"It's not a date," Tsubaki replied back, slapping Hinata's feet with a rolled up magazine to get the brunette's feet off of the table. "We're just… hanging out…" Honestly, he had trouble finding a word that doesn't sound too similar to 'date'. Maybe 'hanging out' isn't the best word to use.

"Sure you are~!" Hinata singed, tossing a pillow from the couch to the red-head. Unfortunately, the brunette ended up getting hit with the same pillow in the face as Tsubaki caught it and threw it on him. "Hey!"

"You started it, Hinata. Anyway, tomorrow needs to be perfect or else…"

"Kamui might not want to talk to you after the project is done?" Hinata guessed what Tsubaki was trying to say.

Tsubaki didn't immediately answer to Hinata as the red-head sighed deeply and just stared at his arms, covered by his sleeves. While Hinata's guess was accurate to what might happen if tomorrow goes horrible, the consequences that Tsubaki had in his thoughts were worse than Kamui ignoring him for the rest of the school year.

Not to mention dangerous to his body.

"Who knows," Tsubaki answered as he made his way into the kitchen, opening the fridge to get a can of Pepsi. "I just hope it doesn't turn out like yesterday at Rose's Thorn. And almost everyone knows what happened…"

"But most of them just saw the photo. It's not like everyone was at the cafe when the incident happened," Hinata replied, going through his phone and pulling up the photo that he was sent yesterday. According to his messages, Takumi sent it to him. Who took the photo was unknown, though the suspect most likely must have been at Rose's Thorn and had a connection to Tsubaki. "And look on the bright side, because of the accident, you got to spend time with Kamui at her house. Alone."

"For a half-hour before her younger sister and older brother arrived," Tsubaki said, taking a seat next to Hinata.

And that half-hour alone in Kamui's house is a moment he can remember; even the smallest details such as the clothes he had to wear while his had to be washed and Kamui touching his hair that's been washed with Camilla's shampoo.

"But you do make a good point, for once," Tsubaki commented to Hinata.

"WHAT?!" Hinata honestly wanted to smack the Pepsi can out of Tsubaki's hand, but considering that he's in Tsubaki's house and not his, it's for the best that he shouldn't. "Still, it's nice to be right once in a while."

"Or rather, make a good point," Tsubaki corrected Hinata. "Anyway, I didn't expect to… hang out with Kamui this quickly, but then she brought up how we don't exactly know each other prior to the project, so…" Tsubaki took a moment to drink from the can before finishing his sentence. "I guess my mind just told me to ask her out and… you know the rest."

He just hopes that he doesn't reveal too much about himself tomorrow. Especially about his life outside of school. There's only a few people who know about it, Hinata being one of them, and god forbid if more than half of his classmates knew about Tsubaki's secrets. It's nothing too extreme, but… Considering how he's presented as the 'perfect' student, someone disrespecting his secrets (AKA: spreading them) would not only ruin his reputation, but his life.

Tsubaki is just thankful that this scenario hasn't happened to him just yet. And maybe he'll reveal it to Kamui when the time is right.

But for now, he's thinking what to wear for tomorrow while he's listening to Hinata about a funny moment in Gym class that involved Takumi getting a bit competitive with another student during a dodgeball game.

Especially since tomorrow is going to be a bit hot until 6 PM.

* * *

 _ **Kamui: The bus went into a little bit of traffic, so I'm going to be a bit late…**_

 _ **Tsubaki: It's fine. I'm almost at Izumo Center anyway.**_

 _ **Kamui: Thank the gods.**_

 _ **Tsubaki: What about your siblings? Did you tell them about today?**_

 _ **Kamui: Yes. Xander is fine as long as I get home before**_ _ **5**_ _ **, and Camilla was worried about**_ _ **my outfit for today.**_

 _ **Tsubaki: I thought I was the only one worrying about what to wear…**_

Kamui couldn't help but giggle at the last message she received from Tsubaki. Last night, Camilla lay out over twenty different outfit combinations for Kamui to wear for this occasion! While she's grateful that none of those options involved insanely high heels/boots, some of them were a bit revealing to her. The outfit the two agreed on is a pink plaid shirt and black shorts since the weather is a bit warm for October.

If it took Kamui twenty times to find an outfit, then she wonders if Tsubaki took more times about his attire because he doesn't want a repeat of what happened on Friday. Most likely, he isn't wearing white for obvious reasons.

For what feels like a half-hour to Kamui, the bus finally stopped moving and the doors opened, allowing the sandy blond to exit from the bus to see the outside of Izumo Center. And just on the exterior alone, Kamui knew that the mall is going to be huge inside. Yes, Camilla has informed her that there's four floors in there, but the exterior of Izumo Center almost looks like there could be more than that.

"Holy…" Kamui can only say as she pulled her phone from her gray purse and took a snapshot of the mall, sending it to Elise. Gods know that the young blond might be squealing even more once she sees this. She's already squealing about Kamui and Tsubaki going out that doesn't involve any school work.

After sending the photo to Elise, Kamui made her way to the mall as she assumed Tsubaki is already inside according to the message she received earlier. As Kamui entered Izumo Center, she looked at the windows of a bookstore to see a poster about a newly released book. More specifically, a book from her favorite author: Robin Verity!

Ooh, she's been waiting for this book to release ever since the author announced it on January on her official website! Now if only Kamui had the money to get it…

As she's gazing on the poster, Kamui felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see Tsubaki behind her, his red hair down instead of being tied into his usual ponytail.

"Oh, hey there, Tsubaki!" Kamui greeted her classmate, smiling at him. She was about to ask him about his hairstyle, but then remembered the text message he sent her yesterday.

The hair clip.

Digging through her purse for two seconds, Kamui found the pink flower clip that Tsubaki accidentally left in her house and gave it to him.

"Thank the gods," Tsubaki sighed as he pulled his hair into a ponytail with the clip on him. "This means a lot to me."

"Really? Was it a gift from someone?" Kamui took a guess.

"Yeah… A girl close to my age gave it to me ten years ago as a parting gift," Tsubaki started to explain the importance of his hair clip. "Sure it looks feminine, but it has the flower I was named after: camellia. And just like the hair clip, my name sounds feminine."

"I don't think it sounds girly," Kamui replied. "Besides, at least your name has a simple meaning. Mine has to do with gods, and I'm not sure which one it is. Bears, snakes, a killer whale, or something involved with Naruto?"

Tsubaki laughed at that comment as he knows the last part is just absurd. The other three had some history (though it can be argued as mythology) that's been passed down through generations.

"Anyway, that was interesting to discuss what our name means," Kamui commented as she stared at the various of people moving, realizing that she and Tsubaki were just standing there for a few minutes. "Oh, gods… Guess we better get moving."

"Yeah," Tsubaki said as he noticed that Kamui is eyeing on the bookstore as they started to move. More specifically, the poster about Robin Verity's new novel: Winter Line.

As the two continued to walk, Tsubaki placed his hand on Kamui's shoulder- stopping the blond- and asked her, "Mind if we check Whitewing Pages for a while?"

"R-really?" Kamui can only say. "Is there something you wanted to get?"

"I guess you can say that…" Tsubaki isn't lying. He wanted to get something that's exclusive to this bookstore.

"Hopefully, you have enough money to purchase the book you want," said Kamui as she felt her phone vibrate from her bag. Pulling it out, Kamui checked to see that Camilla sent her a message concerning about today.

 _ **Camilla: Enjoy your date, Kamui~! I snuck in some money in your wallet when you weren't looking earlier.**_

Huh. She did brought her wallet with her (obviously), but didn't bother to check how much money was in there. As she pulled it out, Kamui almost wanted to slap herself to see if the amount of money in her black wallet was real! For the gods' sake, Kamui is at the mall with Tsubaki, not at a five-star restaurant where the cheapest entree is at $25 at bare minimum! Well, that's expected of Camilla; spoiling all her siblings once in a while, even Xander.

"Holy shit…" Kamui muttered as she put her phone away. However, she didn't put her wallet away on time as Tsubaki took a glance at the inside of it for a second before covering his mouth in shock from the amount she has.

"Gods, you sure saved a lot," Tsubaki commented. Gods, his wallet has half of the amount Kamui has…

"Oh, no. Camilla gave it to me for this date, despite the fact it isn't one…" Kamui explained about her amount of cash. "I probably won't even use at least half of it by the time I get back home."

"You're just going to use it on the book you want?" Tsubaki guessed based on Kamui staring at the poster featuring the newly released novel.

"And maybe a bookmark or two. Some of mine got tattered…"

Or rather shredded due to an incident with a random dog a long time ago.

With that, the two teens entered the bookstore where the book Kamui eyed on is on the "Best-Seller" table, along with other novels about time-travel, a murder mystery, and something based on a video game series that involves pizza or animatronics that murder kids due to… Oh gods, the plot sounds a bit complicated for a first-person horror survival game. Wonder what caused the creator of the game to release a novel besides to make a profit.

Kamui picked up a copy of "Winter Line" from the table and held it close to her chest while trying to contain herself from squealing in a place like this. She didn't want to disturb those who were reading.

"Yea!" Kamui exclaimed in a quiet tone, happy that she got the book she wanted. "It's a bit expensive, but it's worth it! Silas told me the book is really good, especially the ending."

"Eh? Do you mind telling me what it's about?" Tsubaki wondered.

"Sure! I'll explain it while we're getting the book you want," Kamui suggested as Tsubaki started to walk around the store. "So basically, according to the author, the novel is inspired by her husband. In fact, she released it four days before her husband's birthday."

"She released it this Friday?" Tsubaki asked, pulling one book from the shelf, only to put it back as it's not the one he's looking for.

"Yep. So the novel is about a college boy with gynophobia who encounters a girl that's running away from her family…"

"Why?"

"Because they want to sell her into… a club with special service as the author puts it." She didn't want to say prostitution in a bookstore since there might be kids. "Anyway, after he takes her in, it focuses on their relationship over the years; from freshman to the day they graduate."

"That sounds interesting," Tsubaki commented as he found the book he wanted.

"It you want, I can lend it to you once I'm done reading it," Kamui offered. "This novel is a stand-alone if you're curious."

"Okay. Just don't spoil the ending to me…"

"Why would I? I'd be a horrible person if I do that!"

As both Kamui and Tsubaki were making their way to the check-out center (there's a section on bookmarks close to it anyway), the latter opened up the book he was going to buy, quickly flipping through the pages until he stopped at one page since he remembers one quote from that book that means a lot to him.

 _"_ _All aboard the imperfection train!"_

* * *

Not too long after leaving Whitewing Pages, the two were inside a crepe store since Tsubaki had a small breakfast before leaving and his stomach growled loudly in front of Kamui. And a couple of people passing by, but mainly Kamui, leaving him embarrassed that this would happen to him. Thankfully for him, Kamui didn't laugh at him but instead suggest somewhere to eat since it's almost one.

Tsubaki allowed Kamui to choose where to eat, and of all the places… It had to involve something sweet. AKA: crepes. But this crepe store also has some savory items, so he had a few more options when eating. However, their order of crepes will take five minutes to make at minimum, so the two were at a table, with Kamui looking at the book Tsubaki is reading.

"Derailing," Kamui read the title of the novel. "You got a book on trains?"

"The main characters meet on the train, but it's about a shy girl breaking away from her perfectionist ways with the help of two sisters," Tsubaki explained the main premise of the book he's reading. "I've always wanted to read it, but didn't have the time to do so."

"Is it because of work that prevented you from reading? Because that happens to most of us, unless your name is Leo."

 _It's not that. It's something that involved… my health…_ Tsubaki wanted to say to Kamui, but those words didn't escape from his mouth. Instead:

"Yeah. Studying for tests, quizzes, and writing an essay were my priorities last month. I still ate, bathe, and sleep though. I didn't forget about them."

That answer wasn't a lie. He just excluded one part that he thinks Kamui would be mixed on.

"I see. Did you do well on all of them?" Kamui asked Tsubaki.

The red-head placed a bookmark on the page he's reading before closing it and responding to Kamui, "All A's, except one…"

"Eh? Did you fail?"

Sighing, he answered, "I got an 87 on my art history quiz." as he slammed his face on the table.

"That's not too bad. I wouldn't mind getting that on an assignment."

"Tell that to my father who just started to-"

 _ **"**_ _ **You're grades are starting to get sloppy, just like you. Now do better or you're nothing to me."**_

Shit. He doesn't need to remember this now, nor does he want to mention his father in front of Kamui!

Pulling his face up, Tsubaki replied to Kamui, "S-sorry. I really shouldn't…"

"No, no, no. It's fine. At least you remember your father," Kamui said, hands clenching on her shorts. "I don't remember too much about mine besides him adopting me twelve years ago."

Before Tsubaki even said anything, Kamui added, "And no, I don't have any memories of my mother if you're wondering. Strange, isn't it?"

Tsubaki stayed silent for a little while until he replied, "Not at all. Though… You're not related to any of your siblings?"

Tsubaki thought that Kamui was related to her four siblings, even Camilla despite her lilac hair. However, after Kamui mentioned that she was adopted, it actually makes a bit more sense that she's not related to them since the name 'Kamui' sounds Japanese compared to her sibling's names that sounded English.

"Surprise, huh? But to answer your question, no, I'm not related to my siblings," says Kamui. "However, we get along very well and look out for one another."

"I see. You're lucky you have siblings that love you," Tsubaki said, sighing deeply. "It kind of makes me… dare I say… jealous…"

"Hmm? Why's that? Your siblings don't treat you well?"

Not even close to what he thought Kamui would say.

"I don't have any."

Kamui was about to say something in response, only for an employee with long blue hair came up to their table, holding crepes in both of her hands.

"One chocolate strawberry crepe and one shrimp avocado crepe ready for the two of you," the employee handed the order to Kamui and Tsubaki with their respective orders.

"Yea! Time to eat it!" Kamui exclaimed as she took a bite out of her cone shaped dessert. She looked at Tsubaki, eating his crepe a bit more slowly than Kamui. She wouldn't mind it, but she remembered the conversation they had before the employee arrived with their order. Curious, she asked, "Tsubaki, are you okay?"

"Hmm? In all honesty," Tsubaki shook his head 'no', clenching his crepe tight in his hand. "I was just thinking about my response before we got interrupted."

"About how you're an only child?"

"Yes. Sure, I had sibling-figures, but they only visit when they have free time, which is once or twice a month." Sighing before he took a bite of his savory crepe, he finished his sentence with, "For the most part, I'm usually alone in my house."

After swallowing a piece of her crepe, Kamui stopped eating hers for a while right when she heard that part. Hell, she wasn't even expecting as someone like Tsubaki to say that!

"No mom or dad when you get home or have dinner with?" Kamui curiously asked.

Tsubaki shook his head, adding, "Father is rarely home, but mother… she…"

 _Shit, shit, shit! Shut up, gods damn it!_ Tsubaki's mind screamed. He promised himself not to go too far with mentioning his home background to Kamui. Especially his mother as…

Well, too late. His eyes are already forming tears and his vision is starting to blur, almost to the point where he can barely see the crepe he's eating and Kamui reaching for his eyes, attempting to wipe away some of the tears that have escaped his eyes.

"I'm sorry…" Kamui said, her fingers wiping his stray tears. "I shouldn't have made you mention your mother if it makes you cry."

"No, it's-" he paused before he gently pushed Kamui's fingers from his face and wiped his tears using his free arm. "It's fine. I didn't want to tell you about my mother this early on," Tsubaki paused for a deep breath, "But I've already mentioned my father, so it seems fair that I should mention my mother."

"Your mother, is she-"

 _ **"**_ _ **I love you, my little camellia. Please, don't cry…"**_

Kamui didn't say anything else after Tsubaki nodded his head to Kamui's question that she didn't even finish. Despite this, Tsubaki knew what Kamui would ask him. Either if his mother just left the house for good or dead; most likely the latter than the former.

"I lost her a month after I turned 7 years old," Tsubaki explained as he looked at Kamui's red eyes. "She was involved in a-" He stopped his sentence as Kamui placed her index finger on his lips.

"I think that's enough for now…" Kamui said, her finger moving away from his lips. "I don't want you to be more depressed if you mentioned how your mother… died…"

Wiping some more tears off of his face, Tsubaki replied, "Sorry," before he facepalmed himself, stating, "It's just that when mother passed away, father just started to pay less attention to me and became more focused on his work."

"But does he pay attention to you once in a while?"

 _ **"**_ _ **As expected of my son."**_

 _ **"Keep it up and you'll be successful faster than you know it."**_

 _ **"**_ _ **I better see high A's on your report card!"**_

 _ **"I don't want you to be good. I WANT you to be perfect!"**_

"Yes," Tsubaki answered, finally taking a bite of his crepe since what feels like an eternity to him. "Only a few times a month in person."

And Tsubaki prays to the gods that his father's comments are good rather than mean-spirited.

"I can't even imagine if that happened to me," Kamui commented, now thinking if Xander and Camilla were too invested in their jobs to spend time with their family. Fortunately, Xander is guaranteed Saturdays and Sundays off each week, while Camilla comes home from Rose's Thorn at 8 PM (sometimes earlier) and has Sundays off as well, along with the fact that some of her siblings (mainly Kamui and Elise) visit Camilla a few times a week.

"Yeah, but that's my house life in a nutshell."

 _Except one,_ Tsubaki thought, but he didn't want to dive into his darkest secret yet to Kamui.

"Hmm… Well, now I know your family, as well as you knowing, along with meeting, my siblings," Kamui pointed out. Leo mentioned he shares Art History with Tsubaki, Camilla met him at Rose's Thorn a few weeks ago, and Xander and Elise met him Friday at Kamui's house. Kamui wonders if she'll meet Tsubaki's father, but she'll ask when the time is appropriate.

"And this conversation all started with books of all things," Tsubaki commented.

"Who knew..."

As Kamui is devouring her sweet crepe, her phone vibrated and she decided to check it to see who's messaging her. Once again, it's Camilla, though as she read the message her sister sent her, the sandy blond almost dropped her crepe when she read it.

To be sure, Kamui showed Tsubaki her phone and asked, "Tell me this is real?"

* * *

How in the hell did Camilla not tell her about this?! Of all the things in this already huge mall, there's apparently an aquarium in here! Sure, Kamui has heard of a few malls that have an aquarium, but they're often in other countries; never would she imagine that's she is close to one of them! And today happens to be where the ticket prices are half-off for anyone currently in high school (AKA: both Kamui and Tsubaki).

Once Tsubaki confirmed that 'yes', Camilla's message is true, the two immediately rushed out of the crepe store and off to the aquarium where they're currently viewing the jellyfish display, their tanks as a source of light in the dark room. As Kamui is reading the information label about the type of species she's currently looking at, Tsubaki is behind the blond, staring at the jellyfish moving (or swimming) around the small glass tank.

 _ **"**_ _ **Aren't they beautiful, Tsubaki?"**_

"Truly beautiful," Tsubaki commented at the display, accidentally touching Kamui's shoulder as he looked a bit closer at the tank.

"Tsubaki?" Kamui called out, gently pushing the red-head's hand away from her shoulder.

"Eh? Oops, I… I just got really lost in this display," Tsubaki confessed, face blushing red. "It's been forever since I've been here."

"How long? A month, a year or two?" Kamui guessed.

"About six months ago," Tsubaki answered as he walked to another display of a different species of jellyfish, with Kamui following him, "Though that's when I was alone."

"So, what about when you were with others?" Kamui wondered, not even looking at the display of jellyfish.

Right hand on the glass tank, Tsubaki closed his eyes before he answered, "Ten years ago with my mother and father."

Before Kamui can even ask, Tsubaki added, "Oh, it's nothing bad. In fact, it makes me smile whenever I remember this moment."

"So," Kamui started her question, eyes moving away from the jellyfish tank and looking at the entrance of the aquarium tunnel (something she really wanted to see), "How did it go?"

Tsubaki didn't say anything to her. Instead, he grabbed her hand and lead her to the aquarium tunnel, where they were immediately greeted by the light reflected from the glass, along with the various of fishes, manta rays, and sharks swimming past by either above them or on the side.

"Mother and father took me here," Tsubaki started to answer Kamui's question. "Back when I saw this the first time, I ended up screaming with joy as I spotted a family of manta rays swimming above me."

"I bet people were staring at you," Kamui commented, looking above to see a couple of fish swimming.

"They were. But a lot of people were staring at me when I did something no one wouldn't believe I would do."

"And that's…?" Kamui wanted Tsubaki to answer her question, only for him to suddenly grab her hand without any warning and started to run. Running across the aquarium tunnel, seeing all of the sea creatures for only a brief moment. "T-Tsubaki? What…?"

The red-head still didn't respond to Kamui as they were still running in the tunnel, getting people to stare at the two juniors with confusion on what's going on. However, Tsubaki only pointed above the tunnel to see a family of manta rays where below their stomachs, Kamui can see the rays' mouths were smiling at them.

And it only took a few seconds for Kamui to realize that what they're doing now is what Tsubaki did ten years in this same aquarium.

Eventually, the two stopped near a bench where Tsubaki let go of Kamui's hand before he sat down, panting heavily from their sudden sprint.

As Kamui took a seat, Tsubaki asked, "Surprised?"

"Clearly," Kamui says. "Did you really drag your parents like that?"

"Only my mother. Father was caught off by my actions and he basically chased me, yelling 'Stop running! You'll end up tripping!'. Luckily, I didn't trip at all, but we ended up tired from running and… Well, you can figure that part on your own."

Sitting at the bench and watching several sea creatures passing by. Kamui can imagine that with Tsubaki and his parents when he was younger.

"You know," Kamui started to say, as she looked at Tsubaki, "I should really thank Elise when I get back home."

"For…" Tsubaki paused as he didn't want to use the word 'date' or anything similar to it that might give Kamui the wrong idea. "For calling me?"

"That, and the fact we got to know each other much better than ever in a span of two days."

"Yeah," Tsubaki says. "Today is a great day."

The two then gazed up at the family of manta rays swimming, greeted with smiles that made both juniors smile back before looking at the view in front of them; a long golden fish swimming by a crowd of clown fish in the opposite direction. While looking at the Arowana (as Tsubaki commented), Kamui and Tsubaki were holding hands, and the latter ended up pointing out facts to the various of sea creatures, with Kamui making some silly noises as a shark or a turtle comes to their view.

* * *

 _"_ _So, how did your day with Kamui went?"_ Hinata eagerly asked, not wanting to wait 'til tomorrow for Tsubaki to tell him.

Setting his pen on his desk, Tsubaki replied, "It went perfectly."

 _"_ _Oh, come on! There had to be something that went wrong. Don't lie to me..."_

"Nothing bad happened, Hinata. Besides, it really made my week a lot better."

 _"_ _Enough for-"_

"Good night, Hinata," Tsubaki hanged up on the loud brunette as he plugged his phone onto his charger and looked at his diary one last time.

 _ **Thank the gods. I'm not gonna cut myself this week.**_

* * *

 _The following Monday during lunch, Tsubomi isn't sitting with her friends like she usually does, but instead outside, sitting underneath a tree and eating her sandwich while reading her notes from last class. It's not the first time she has done this. She explained to her friends that she has an upcoming test in her History class, and it counts for a quarter of a grade, so she can't afford to screw it up like last time. By screwing up, she ended up getting an '89' instead of anything above a '90'. Sure, it didn't ruin her already high grade in that class, but when she showed her test to her father… Ugh! Better to forget that memory rather than relive it._

 **As she's going over the struggle of Thracia in the year 776, Tsubomi noticed a hand with one ring on each finger (except the pinky) on her journal and looked up to see the new student who just transferred to her school two weeks ago: Kazuya Harrison.**

 _"Hey there, little bud," Kazuya greeted_ _the raven-haired girl. "Mind if I sit next to you?"_

 **"Uh… Sure." Tsubomi wanted to say 'no' to him, but based on her observations on the brunette for the past two weeks, Tsubomi noticed that Kazuya has been sitting by himself at lunch. As Kazuya pulled out his small container that has white rice and chicken, Tsubomi asked, "Why do you want to sit next to me anyway?"**

 _As he pulled out his spoon and fork, Kazuya answered, "Oh, it's easy, little bud…"_

 **"It's Tsubomi," she pointed out.**

 _"I know, little bud," Kazuya kept using the literal meaning of Tsubomi's name. "But anyway, I just want to know you."_

 **"Hmm…? Why?" Everyone at school knows that she's 'Ms. Perfect'. Perfect looks, grades, talent, life…**

 _"Because I don't believe that you're perfect like everyone says."_

* * *

 **Author's Note: Well, just like last time, this chapter ended up being ten times longer than expected! Also, this story is starting to get dark with references to child abuse and self-harm (though mentioned).**

 **Anyway, I hope you guys like it and I'll see you later!**


	4. Visit

~ _…_ _You don't notice me. I'd do anything for you…_

"So at least do the same for me too~" Hinata singed his favorite part of the song. Off-tone to be precise. Not too shortly, Tsubaki tossed his pillow from his bed at Hinata's head, hoping the brunette would cease his below average singing. Fortunately for the red-head, Hinata didn't utter a melody, but instead said, "Baki! You know how much I love this song by the Soarin' Knights."

"When you sung it about seven times in the past thirty minutes, I can clearly tell," Tsubaki replied as he removed Hinata's headphones from his ears, much to the displeasure of the brunette. "But enough listening to Catria's voice and start doing your homework."

"Aw, do I have to?!" Hinata groaned heavily and loudly, annoyed that he has to do it despite the assignment not being due until next Monday.

Tsubaki simply pulled up Hinata's crumpled up paper with a 64 written in red ink and with almost half of the front sheet being filled with x marks. Briefly screaming that Tsubaki would pull something like this, Hinata hastily snatches his test from Tsubaki's hands and starts to crumple it into a ball, throwing it in the trash can.

"Fine…" Hinata finally accepted as he picked up his pencil and started to solve the equations he's sure that he won't use for most of his life. "You know, I'm passing math…"

"With a 74 mind you," Tsubaki added, flipping his paper to do the next set of problems.

"I know that! Thing is, my parents are just happy to know that I don't have a 59 or lower in math."

"Still, that doesn't give you the excuse to slack off."

Hinata simply stick his tongue out at Tsubaki before resuming his work. The red-head ignored it since he has seen Hinata done it more than a hundred times.

Two minutes passed and Tsubaki sighed, finally completing the last problem to his homework. He opened up his laptop and started to open his main web browser since the document is at his Google Drive account. As Tsubaki looked at his short story, Hinata peaked at Tsubaki's laptop and only glanced at the title before the red-head attempted to cover the laptop screen with his hands.

"What gives?!" Tsubaki barked at Hinata. "Shouldn't you be working on your homework?"

"I was, but how can I think about homework when…" Hinata didn't finish his sentence as he ended up laughing and falling to the ground, his head landing on the pillow.

Tsubaki heavily sighed as he read the title, knowing that Kamui still hasn't thought of a title to replace the embarrassing placeholder title since last Friday. Gods, this is the fourth time someone laughed at the title this week…

"Ha ha. Very funny," Tsubaki sarcastically said to the giggling brunette. "The title might sound humorous, but I assure you-"

"Yeah, right!" Hinata interrupted the red-head's sentence as the former decided to look at the document.

"H-hey! You better not mess with anything!" Tsubaki warned Hinata, hoping the latter didn't accidentally delete what was on there. It took Tsubaki and Kamui at least a good five days to get through two and a half pages already.

"I promise, Baki. Sheesh, I'm not that stupid to screw around what you and **your new friend** wrote."

"Good. It took-" Tsubaki paused after he heard the last few words Hinata said to him. "Hold up. When you said 'new friend', did you mean Kamui?"

"Duh! It's not that hard to notice during the past few days."

Hinata wasn't wrong (for once). After Sunday's events, Tsubaki and Kamui have been talking to each other a bit more outside of school (including text messages), and even sat together during lunch at least twice this week. Sure, they haven't been "hanging out" outside of school during this week, but it's nice for Tsubaki to be able to spend time with Kamui at school, even if it's small.

As Hinata is skimming through the two pages that's on the document, Tsubaki's phone ringed, with his ringtone being the latest single from The Soarin' Knights: Bloodline. Apparently, when this song ringing, this can only mean a certain someone is calling him…

 _Why now_ _?!_ Tsubaki screamed in his thoughts as he hastily grabbed his phone off the desk and looked at the screen to see that Kamui is calling him. He remembered that yesterday Kamui set 'Bloodline' as his ringtone whenever she calls him when she found out that he loves the popular girl group; especially the Aita sisters: Palla, Catria, and Estella (or Est for short).

 _We know you can shine! It's all in your bloodline!_

Tsubaki pressed the call button after hearing the main chorus of 'Bloodline'. Hinata snickered that Tsubaki would have a 'girly' ringtone set on his phone, but Tsubaki simply coughed and his red eyes glared at Hinata, signaling the brunette to be quiet when he's discussing with Kamui.

 _"_ _So you decided to pick up, huh?"_ Kamui asked Tsubaki.

"After hearing that ringtone, I had to," Tsubaki replied before laughing a bit.

 _"_ _Oh, my gods! He actually answered!"_ another voice chipped in the background, with Tsubaki instantly recognizing that voice as Elise.

 _"_ _Shh! Elise, please!"_

 _"Yes, Elise. Let Kamui talk to her darling little friend."_ a third voice popped in.

 _"Camilla!"_ Kamui yelled.

Jeez, next thing he'll know, Kamui's entire family will be listening onto this phone conversation.

 _"_ _Sorry about that. Anyw_ _ay, I was just wondering if you had anything planned for tomorrow after school,"_ Kamui said before requesting her sisters to be quiet due to their loud laughter.

"Oh, no I don't," Tsubaki answered to Kamui. "Why do you ask?"

 _"Well…_ _I'd like it if you would come over to my house tomorrow for dinner with my siblings,"_ Kamui requested as there was squealing in the background (most likely Elise).

Tsubaki was about to answer to Kamui's request, only for him to hear another voice that's not either Kamui, Camilla, or Elise. Instead…

 _"…_ _You mean Mr. Perfect? Gods, do you guys have to torture me? Having him in two classes is enough, but I'd rather not spend an extra hour with Mr. Perfect around."_

 _Shut up…_ The red-head wanted to say to the phone, but didn't as he might accidentally say it to Kamui and that can lead to an awkward conversation.

 _"_ _Leo! That's mean to say_ _about him_ _!"_ Elise exclaimed to her older brother.

 _"_ _You're not the one who sees him_ _at least_ _five times a week,"_ Leo informed Elise.

 _"But Kamui does so too!"_ Elise retaliated back to her brother. _"And she knows him a lot better than you Mr. I have my shirt inside out right now!"_

 _"What the- DAMN IT!"_ Leo cursed loudly as he mumbled to himself about how this is the seventh time this week someone reminded him that his shirt (or hoodie) was inside out. Honestly, Tsubaki wanted to say "Serves you right" to Leo, but he decided against it due to Kamui being on the line.

A few seconds later, Kamui spoke up again, _"Sorry about Leo. So anyway, are you coming tomorrow?"_

"Say yes, Baki!" Hinata encouraged the red-head, now behind him and happily eavesdropping on the conversation.

Tsubaki simply hushed the short brunette, hoping that his loud voice didn't make it through the speakers. Luckily, neither Kamui or her family didn't notice it.

"I accept," Tsubaki answered as he looked at Hinata, quietly saying the words 'Hell yes!' with both of his fists up in the air.

 _"_ _Oh, thank the gods! For a minute, I thought you would say no,"_ Kamui says before laughing a bit.

"For a partner like you, I would never think about refusing an offer like that."

Hinata nearly squealed loudly when he heard that. If Tsubaki added 'lovely' to partner, the brunette would lose it.

 _"_ _Aw! You shouldn't have,"_ Kamui replied to Tsubaki. _"_ _Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow, Tsubaki! Oh, and dress nice as well."_

"I always do," Tsubaki says as the call ended. As he placed his phone on his desk, Tsubaki opened his closet, pulling out five clean shirts and laying them down neatly on his bed. Not too shortly after, he re-entered his closet, looking at the few sweaters that would go for each shirt.

As his friend is pulling out a gray sweater, Hinata sighed heavily as this is almost a repeat from Sunday; Tsubaki stressing and spending over an hour on what to wear. Hell, since Tsubaki is going to be with Kamui's entire family tomorrow, it's going to take twice as long, maybe three times longer in order to get an attire that Tsubaki will be pleased with.

"Need a hand, Baki?" Hinata offered as the red-head pulled a navy blue sweater out.

"Is this a way of getting out of your homework?" asked Tsubaki.

Hinata simply stuck his tongue out to Tsubaki before he went to the closet with Tsubaki, hastily pulling out a red sweater, alongside brown boots he found on the ground.

"Ha ha," Hinata sarcastically laughed. "Besides, I think you don't need to make a big deal over this."

"Yes I do," Tsubaki replied. "I didn't make a good first impression with some of them, especially last week…"

Where he wore Xander's clothes when meeting both Kamui's older brother and younger sister. While Elise pretty much liked him on the spot, Tsubaki wasn't sure if Xander liked him or just outright despised him despite him acting friendly towards the red-head during their first meeting.

Leo on the other hand… hates him for sure. When Tsubaki first talked to Leo during his first week of school, the blond simply ignored him and said some awful things behind the red-head's back such as 'snob', 'uptight jerk', and of course…

 **Mr. Perfect.**

Tsubaki didn't mind people referring to him as 'Mr. Perfect' since Elementary School, but as the years went on, what became a pleasant nickname slowly morphed into an insult. Sure, there are people like Silas who doesn't use 'Mr. Perfect' in a horrible way, but for the most part…

 _Ooh, look at_ _ **Mr. Perfect**_ _getting an A like it's nothing. Bet you he didn't studied._

 _I bet you_ _ **Mr. Perfect**_ _doesn't like anyone but himself. I mean, look at him. He spends most of the_ _time_ _looking at the mirror when dressing for Gym class._

 _ **Mr. Perfect**_ _. More like Mr. Perfect Asshole!_

Honestly… He'll hear that nickname at least once a day in his classes, mostly used to spite him. Of course, Tsubaki won't be bothered by it on the outside, but on the inside he is.

"So? I'm sure they'll give you another chance," Hinata reassured his friend. "Besides, first impressions aren't always everything."

"Easy for you to say," Tsubaki commented as he looked at the shirts and sweaters laying on the bed. "I'd believe you if it weren't for one reason."

"What rea-" Hinata had to pause his sentence for a moment before he realized what Tsubaki meant. "Oh. Forgot about that for a minute."

"It's fine. Besides, I'd like to forget that too for one moment in my life."

 _First impressions are always everything. You won't always get a second chance if you screw u_ _p, especially when you're older._

* * *

Five minutes since the last class of the day and Tsubaki is sitting at a bench, waiting for Kamui. They were supposed to leave after English, but Kamui had to do a favor for Silas. He didn't get all the details, though Silas mentioned it had to do for the Homecoming dance that's coming up soon. Usually, the dance should happen during September or October, but due to the Student Council getting the funds very late, the dance is to take place on November 3rd instead of October 20th.

While waiting for Kamui to exit the main building, he's checking his phone to see the countless messages that Hinata has sent him during the past ten minutes. And there were a lot due to Hinata sending them during the last five minutes of school.

 **_Hinata: You'll do fine! Just remember to relax a bit._**

 _ **Also, tell me everything that happened when you get home! You never gave me the full details about you and Kamui at Izumo Center! If you don't, I swear to the gods I'll get a Sharpie and draw whiskers on your face! o_o**_

 _Oh my gods. Really Hinata_ _…?_ Tsubaki sighed heavily as he typed his reply to Hinata. This isn't the first time Hinata has done this to the red-head, and he doesn't want a repeat of what happened Freshman year when Tsubaki refused to tell Hinata the details about… something important to Tsubaki.

 _ **Tsubaki: I promise. Anyway, I'm waiting for Kamui to come out. She's going to drive me to her house.**_

 _ **Hinata: Seriously?**_

 _ **Tsubaki: Well, she's using her sister's car**_ _ **since she's taking the day off from work.**_

 _ **Hinata: 'Kay. Wait a minute, doesn't this mean…**_

 _ **Tsubaki: Ye**_ _ **s**_ _ **. I'll survive…**_

As he finished up his message to Hinata, he spotted Kamui walking out of the school building with Silas, with the former laughing at what the latter said.

"Really? Did Beruka just stared at the snake when it was on her?" Kamui asked Silas.

"I mean it," Silas answered to his friend. "Everyone was freaking out, including the teacher, but Beruka didn't even move or scream. It's almost like she's used to it."

"My gods…"

"Anyway, thanks for helping me out last minute, Kamui. I could have asked Alfonse or Sharena, but they left already."

"Oh, it's nothing. Hope you win Homecoming King," Kamui replied as she and Silas went their separate ways. She swore that she heard Silas screaming "You shouldn't have!" before he made his way to the bus stop. After waving good-bye to Silas, she noticed Tsubaki and said to him, "Sorry I made you wait this long."

"Don't worry about it," Tsubaki replied to the blond. "Besides, I'm ready to face your siblings… again."

"Great! Let's get to the parking lot before Leo-"

As she was about to finish her sentence, her phone started to ring and the screen revealed that Elise is the one that's contacting her. Thinking that the call won't take too long by the time she gets to the student parking lot, Kamui accepted the call.

"Elise?" Kamui started as she and Tsubaki are making their way to the parking lot. "You missed the bus and… Oh, okay… I'm about to leave the school with Leo and Tsubaki anyway, so stay- Hey! He's not my boyfriend!"

Tsubaki's face turned pink when he heard Kamui mentioned 'boyfriend'. And he swore to the gods that he heard another voice on the phone besides Elise, laughing alongside her.

"See you in ten minutes, Elise. Love you," Kamui ended the call before sighing deeply and looking at Tsubaki "Oh, my gods…"

"Tell me about it," Tsubaki added, knowing how Kamui felt. It took him a good two hours to explain to Hinata that he and Kamui aren't dating and are just friends for now. "Picking up your sister?"

"Yep. And her friend too," Kamui informed as they finally made it to the parking lot and finding Kamui's car (technically Camilla's) very easily due to Leo being near the car.

"It's about time you showed up," Leo says, closing the book he was reading. "Let's get this over with."

"Not until we pick up Elise and her friend from her school," Kamui added as she pulled the car keys from her pocket and unlocked the doors.

"Great. That's more time in the car with Mr. Perfect," Leo groaned as he opened the front car door and took his seat.

Not even a minute with Leo and already Tsubaki wanted to tell the younger brother to shut up. Just like in the phone call from yesterday. But just like yesterday, Tsubaki didn't say anything to Leo and instead ignored the nickname as he entered the back of the car. Kamui started the car and drove out of the student parking lot and to the road to Zenith Middle School.

During the drive to Elise's school, Kamui noticed that no one had said anything in the past five minutes. Tsubaki is just starring at the window while Leo is texting Owain about why he can't attend this week's D & D session. She knows that Leo doesn't exactly like Tsubaki due to Leo commenting about him in a negative way a couple of times during a discussion at dinner. And she can't forget yesterday where Leo was just annoyed about how he's practically forced to be at dinner by Camilla. If he refused…

 _"_ _Then is it okay if I send your baby photos to your classmates?"_

He did NOT want anyone to see them no matter what! Especially a certain someone that calls him a 'Nohrian Scum' on a daily basis.

While waiting for the stoplight to turn green, Kamui decided to turn on the radio to put some music in the car. Unfortunately, the volume was set too high, causing everyone to scream a bit before Kamui dialed the volume at a safer and more tolerable level. The song that's playing on the radio however…

~ _This moment feels so right. Please stay and let us dance the night away.~_

"Really?!" Leo groaned as he fumbled into his backpack to find his headphones. "This is the seventh time I've heard this song today! I'm sick of it!"

"You sure? If I recall last night, you were singing this song in the shower," Kamui added as the lights turned green.

Tsubaki couldn't help himself but to laugh at that comment before he decided to be part of the conversation, "So not even you can resist the Soarin'-"

"Be quiet, Miyazaki!" Leo demanded, his headphones on and blaring out loud music onto his ears. Well, at least Leo isn't calling him Mr. Perfect.

Just as "Dance the Night Away" has finished playing, they finally arrived at Zenith Middle School, where there were some students still in the front, waiting to get picked up by their parents/ older siblings. Kamui spotted Elise carrying her violin case, alongside a girl with short pink hair carrying an instrumental case as well.

Or to be more accurate, a case that's almost twice as long as Elise's case!

As Elise opened the door, she requested to Kamui, "Big sister, can you open the back trunk so Sakura can put her koto in there?"

"Oh, yeah. Just give me a moment," Kamui nodded her head as she pressed the button to let the back trunk open. "Close it when you're done."

"'Kay!"

After a few seconds of the middle school girls setting their cases into the back and closing the trunk, they entered the car, with Elise next to the window while the pink-haired girl named Sakura sat between Elise and Tsubaki.

As Kamui is exiting the parking lot of Elise's school, Sakura looked at Tsubaki and said, "What are you doing here, Tsubaki? F-forgot your bus pass today?"

"Huh? Oh, no," Tsubaki replied. He honestly didn't expect Sakura to be here! He thought she'd already been picked up by one of her siblings or walked home with Hana. "You see-"

"We invited him to come over for dinner today!" Elise chipped into the conversation. "Also, you know Kamui's boyfriend, Sakura?!"

"W-what?!" both Kamui and Tsubaki can only say to Elise, with Kamui still having her eyes on the road. "We're not dating!"

"Give it some time~!" Elise happily singed as she turned the volume dial up when she heard a song she liked on the radio. "You two would be the cutest couple ever!"

 _Me and Kamui? A couple? No way!_ Tsubaki wanted to say to the young blond, but decided to keep it to himself as Elise and Sakura were singing a catchy pop song that frequently played during the summer.

Both Kamui and Tsubaki hopes to the gods that Camilla doesn't tease the two of them during dinner… Elise is fine, but with Camilla… No.

* * *

Right when they arrived home (and getting some hugs from Camilla), Leo immediately went upstairs to his room, Elise and Sakura were the former's room to practice their piece they'll preform next Saturday, while Tsubaki is with Kamui at her room, both of them sitting on the bed with Kamui having her laptop set on her bed. He thought it would be the perfect time to continue the English assignment, but…

"Oh, no! We're not doing that!"

"Then we should leave her and die to an oncoming Wyvern Lord. Is that what your saying, Kamui?"

"Wha- No! I mean, yes, she'll be safe, but the one holding her will be getting doubled if that happens!"

As Kamui is opening her file for the short story, Tsubaki noticed the GBA icon on her laptop tab bar and Kamui asked if he wanted to try it out, which he accepted. The game they're playing on the emulator is an old game from the popular series called "Flaming Treasure"; more specifically, the sixth title of the series that was Japan exclusive. Currently, they're on the infamous part of the game where they have to protect a certain unit and clearing the map in less than 25 turns. That's fine, except for a few, twisted catches…

"Then why did they put HER at level one in an unpromoted class?!" Tsubaki exclaimed as he moved a Falcon Knight to fight an enemy wielding a sword.

"It's a mystery," Kamui answered, watching the enemy die to a 4% critical hit. "Anyway, I've tried to beat this map at least five times, but to no luck due to one of my units dying… Mostly HER."

"No kidding." Tsubaki sighed, selecting the female sage a couple of times before deciding to move to another unit that can take out most of the bigger threats in the map. "I think I can safely end this turn."

"You sure about that?" Kamui asked as Tsubaki ended his turn. In a matter of minutes, most of his units ended up okay and dodging some attacks, but a Wyvern Lord that wasn't seen due to the fog on the map ended up killing the unit required to get a special chapter unlocked. Seeing Tsubaki facepalmed himself, Kamui decided to close the emulator and opened the short story like she wanted to a little while ago.

"Well, that makes attempt number six, and it's safe to say it ended in a failure." Tsubaki looked at the laptop screen to see that Kamui has the short story up, with the title still unchanged. "Really? I thought by the end of the week you'd changed the title."

"I tried to, but I couldn't think of any good titles for this story. Maybe once we finish the story, I can come up with the final title," Kamui suggested as she started her next paragraph of the story.

"Fair enough…" Tsubaki can understand Kamui's answer. As Kamui is writing her paragraph, Tsubaki noticed a stuffed animal that interested him; a small blue dragon with black buttons as eyes. He picked it up and commented, "Cute dragon you got there."

Kamui stopped typing and slammed her laptop closed before attempting to get her stuffed animal back, but failed by saying, "Give me Andy back, Tsubaki!"

"Andy?! That's what you named your dragon? Not something majestic like Percival or Amelia?"

"I was six when I got him! Now give him back or else…!" Kamui didn't know what to add on to her threat. She could warn him that she'll steal something precious from his backpack such as a diary (if he had one) or… maybe he has a stuffed animal of his own? She wasn't too sure. Unless…

Thankful that Tsubaki brought his backpack to her room, Kamui grabbed Tsubaki's backpack and opened it, digging through it to find something to threaten him in order to get her stuffed dragon back. So far, she found nothing besides loose pencils and a small compact mirror…

"H-hey! Hands off my stuff!" Tsubaki pleaded the blond, trying to pull her away from his bag.

"Says the guy who grabbed by stuff," Kamui retaliated, still looking.

 _Oh, gods… She better not find 'that',_ Tsubaki thought as the journal he brought in his backpack is… personal. Yes, it's like a diary, but that diary contains some personal secrets that are darker besides the typical embarrassing secrets and one-off crushes he's written in there.

Eventually, Kamui didn't pull out any journal (thank the gods), but instead a small white Pegasus plushie with a red mane and tail.

"Aw! Look what we have here!" Kamui exclaimed, admiring the plushie she found from Tsubaki's backpack. "He's so cute, like you!"

"Uh…" Tsubaki stopped when Kamui mentioned that he's cute. Gods, that's making his face blush pink just from that comment alone.

Wait a second…

"Hey! Hands off Tsubasa! And for the record, Tsubasa is a girl, not a boy!" Tsubaki told Kamui, trying to reach for his stuffed Pegasus.

"Really? That's adorable!" Kamui commented, looking at the stuffed animal. "You know, I don't know many guys that have a stuffed animal, let alone a guy that named their plushie a girly name."

"Oh, that's it!" Tsubaki had enough of Kamui's teasing and snatched Tsubasa out of the blond's hands, only for Kamui to tackle him in return, causing Tsubaki to have his back on the bed and Kamui on top of him, her hands grasping onto his wrists.

The two teens stayed like this for a while, staring at each others' red eyes, not saying anything to each other and their stuffed animals were lying next to Tsubaki's arms. And oh, gods… both of their faces are turning pink!

Kamui couldn't help but stare at what Tsubaki is wearing. Yes, she noticed it during school, but not up this close! Nice pants with no wrinkles, navy blue dress shirt with a black sweater unbuttoned; Tsubaki really put a lot of effort to look nice- Scratch that- handsome for Kamui and her siblings. Hell, he could be in a clean t-shirt and jeans and Kamui would still think Tsubaki is good looking.

Tsubaki gazed on Kamui's creamy white dress; beautiful yet modest with the short sleeves, and the black leggings gave it a nice touch to it. Tsubaki thought Kamui would just settle for a nice blouse prior to today, but after seeing Kamui in this in school and in this angle (as awkward as it is), gods, he just wanted to say to Kamui…

"Damn, you look sexy," both of them commented to each other before they gasped at what they said. "Eh? You mean it?!"

"Well, of course!" Kamui replied first, her hands letting go of Tsubaki's wrists. "You always look nice every day."

"That's something I don't hear often," Tsubaki said, getting his back off the bed, hands holding Tsubasa tightly. "And to answer your question, yes, I absolutely mean it."

"Aw, that's so sweet!" Kamui responded by giving Tsubaki a hug, to which the red-head gladly accepted by placing one hand on Kamui's head, and the other on her shoulder. And in all honesty, he wanted this to last for one more minute.

However, it was cut short when a loud knock on the door was made, along with a voice.

"Little princess, may I come in?"

Getting up from the bed and making her way to the front door, Kamui opened it to let Xander inside her room, with the eldest looking at Tsubaki.

"Ah, hello there, sir- I-I mean… Xander," Tsubaki said, remembering that he shouldn't call Xander 'sir'. Not only that, he hid Tsubasa behind his back to prevent the eldest brother from looking at his girly stuffed animal.

"Tsubaki, it's nice to see you again," Xander replied to the red-head.

"Same here." While talking to Xander, Tsubaki secretly tossed his stuffed animal onto Kamui's bed as Tsubasa blends well with Andy lying around. And Tsubaki prays to the gods that Xander doesn't notice it. Fortunately, Xander's eyes isn't focused on the bed, giving a bit of relief for the red-head.

"Did… Did I interrupt something important?" Xander asked, noticing that Kamui's and Tsubaki's faces are a bit red.

"N-no, Xander! We were just doing our project and then we goofed around for a little bit in- Uh…" Kamui immediately stopped as she was going to say 'bed'. Just the phrase 'goofed around' and adding the word 'bed' can enable some unfortunate implications for Xander.

Thankfully, Xander didn't get that and stated, "I can see," as his eyes were now trailing onto the bed, a few of Kamui's stuffed animals lying on there, along with her laptop closed. "I just came here to tell you that dinner is ready."

"Oh, yes! I'll get the table set up right away," Kamui said as she left her room and made her way downstairs to the kitchen, leaving Xander and Tsubaki in the room.

 _Here we go again,_ Tsubaki thought, remembering last week where it was just him and Xander. Yes, Elise was there in the living room with them last week, but the young blond didn't pay too much attention to them.

Breathing in, Tsubaki was about to speak to Xander, but the latter responded to the red-head, "By the way, nice stuffed animal you have over there."

Shocked that Xander noticed it anyway, Tsubaki snatched Tsubasa out of the bed and stuffed it in his backpack in a hurry.

"I-It's not mine! It's Sakura's!" Tsubaki attempted to lie to Xander. "She gave it to me for safe-keeping!"

"You sure?" Xander wondered as Tsubaki closed his backpack, with his stuffed Pegasus inside with his journals and books. "When did Sakura exactly gave you her stuffed toy?"

"Uh… A few days ago…" Tsubaki answered nervously to Xander.

"Is that so. I can go ask her during dinner-"

Not a good sign for Tsubaki as he knows for sure that someone like Sakura could never lie; even if somebody pays her to do so. The only choice to save himself from humiliation from dinner is to do the worst…

"No, no! The stuffed animal… I mean Tsubasa…" Tsubaki felt a little lump in his throat when attempting to confess to the tall blond. "Tsubasa is mine, not Sakura's. Kind of a girly stuffed toy for a boy if you ask me."

"I know that feeling. Don't worry, nobody else needs to know that," Xander replied to Tsubaki as he walked out of Kamui's room and to the kitchen.

Tsubaki sighed in relief as Xander didn't even mock him for owning a feminine stuffed animal, along with him keeping this a secret. Thank the gods.

As Tsubaki made his way downstairs to the kitchen, he spotted Elise and Sakura sitting next to each other, giggling at whatever Leo said or that his hoodie is inside out again. It wasn't either of them, but when Tsubaki took a glance at Leo's hoodie, he attempted to contain his laughter as he sat down next to Sakura.

"Cute tomato, Leo," Tsubaki commented on the tomato with dotted eyes and a smile on Leo's hoodie before he shortly burst out laughing with Elise and Sakura.

"Ha ha, very funny Miyazaki," Leo sarcastically replied before turning to Elise and pointing at her. "And you of all people shouldn't be laughing. You've seen me in this a lot of times."

"I know, but I can't help it that a smart and mature person would wear something so… So cute like that!" Elise pointed out before laughing again.

"W-whatever!"

"Speaking of cute," Kamui cut into the conversation, sitting next to Tsubaki.

 _Uh-oh…_ Tsubaki better hope that she doesn't bring up Tsubasa.

"I just recently learned that Tsubaki-"

 _No, no, no!_

"I knew it! You have a crush on Tsubaki because you think he's really cute!" Elise cut off Kamui's sentence.

Tsubaki heavily sighed in relief that nobody else gets to hear that embarrassing secret. Yes, he's well aware Sakura knows it, but there's a good chance that Sakura would back up Kamui's claim since the pink-haired girl has known Tsubaki for years; along with her family as well.

However, with Elise mentioning romance…

"What?! E-Elise! Tsubaki and I are just friends, that's all. How many times do I need to tell you that?" Kamui replied to her youngest sister.

"Are you sure?! Because you two seemed to dress to impress each other. Is that right?" Elise eagerly asked the two.

"I asked him to dress nicely yesterday."

"But did he asked you to-" Elise's sentence ended up being cut off when the pot of beef stew was placed at the center of the table by Camilla.

"Alright, Elise. I'm sure Tsubaki didn't have to ask Kamui to dress nicely," Camilla replied to the youngest sister. "That was her decision to do so. Right, Kamui?"

"Uh… Yes," Kamui nervously answered to her sister as she grabbed the ladle from the pot and poured it on her bowl.

After a minute of everyone getting the beef stew into their bowl and started to eat, there was silence surrounding the kitchen table, besides the clinging of the bowls and glass of iced tea.

Fortunately, the awkward silence broke with Camilla asking Elise, "So Elise, where are you and Sakura, was it?" Camilla paused her sentence to see if she had gotten the pink-haired girl's name right, which she responded with a nod, along with a soft-spoken 'yes'. "Where are you going to preform next Saturday?"

"At Xander's school in the auditorium," Elise answered. "It'll be the first time I get to there!"

"Uh… M-me too," Sakura replied. "I heard it's very large and the a-auditorium there can hold more than 10,000 people. I-Is that true?"

"Yes," Xander answered Sakura's question. "And we'll be able to go next Saturday."

"Even Camilla?!"

"Of course. I'll leave Jakob in charge of the cafe while I'm gone," Camilla replied.

"Oh, yea! I can't wait for everyone to hear what Sakura and I are going to play next Saturday!"

"What song is it you can play with a violin and a koto?" Leo asked Elise, knowing there's very little songs that can be possibly be played with the two instruments he heard (at least to his knowledge).

"W-well… It's-"

Elise cut off Sakura's sentence with, "Shh! Sakura, don't tell them the song we're playing! It'll ruin the surprise for next week!"

"O-oh… My bad."

"It's fine. Besides, everyone will be surprised at how a violin and a koto sounds so good together, and…"

As Elise is continuing her conversation with Sakura, Tsubaki is slowly eating his beef stew as it's still too hot for him to eat without him blowing at it every few seconds. As he was about to take a bite out of the potato, he heard Kamui giggling softly. Nobody else at the table heard it due to Elise's loud voice (thank the gods); Kamui didn't want anyone else but Tsubaki to hear for a reason.

"W-what? Is there something on my face?" Tsubaki wondered.

"Oh… Let me just check." Kamui rubbed a napkin on Tsubaki's left cheek and showed the stain to him.

"Are you serious?"

"You're lucky that I noticed it before anyone else pointed it out."

"Well… Thanks, Kamui," Tsubaki said before going back to eat his dish.

As the two are continuing to eat, Kamui asked Tsubaki, "So… I know your dad isn't home a lot, but does he eat dinner with you when he has the chance?"

Just as he ate his spoonful of beef stew, Tsubaki stared at his bowl before answering, "Yes, but…"

"But what?"

"It's nothing like this."

Xander telling everyone about one of his female students that tried to pull a prank on him today. Elise almost spitting her iced tea from her mouth from hearing Xander's story. Leo talking to Xander while his mouth is full. Camilla talking to Sakura about her family, more specifically, Sakura's eldest sister, Hinoka. So lively.

With Tsubaki and his father… Silent. Nothing but the clinging of the utensils, and the occasional car or bus passing by their house. Whenever they do have a conversation:

 _"Are you getting perfect grades at school?"_

Or any variation of that question such as seeing his report card, or how he did in a recent test that he studied for weeks. He wanted to talk to his father about anything but school and… perfection. Especially the latter.

It would be a nice change for Tsubaki when he's usually stuck to cook for himself, or in rare cases, order take out or eat out if he has enough money from his part-time job.

"Oh." Kamui can only say. "Changing topics-"

All of a sudden, a loud noise from outside frightened Sakura, holding the ladle filled with some beef stew, and she accidentally flung parts of the stew to Tsubaki's face and onto his shirt and sweater. Kamui muttered to herself, "Not again," as this is a repeat of last week, while everyone stayed silent, even Leo.

"Oh, my gods, Tsubaki! I'm so sorry!" Sakura frantically apologized as she attempted to grab a napkin and wipe the stains off of him. "I can-"

"No, no. It's fine, Sakura," Tsubaki reassured the pink-haired girl as he got up from his seat. "I can wash it off in the bathroom."

As Tsubaki left the kitchen, the loud noise came again, followed up with the sounds of rain coming. Right! There's a 30% of a thunderstorm occurring despite the nice weather in the morning and afternoon. And it's heavy to boot.

* * *

Faucet running, Tsubaki splashed his face with warm water and used the nearest soap bar to wash his face. After washing his face and drying his face with a white towel, Tsubaki looked at himself in the mirror to see if there's any stains that he might miss on his face. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like the case. However, his clothes are stained a bit and even if the coloring of his clothes help hide the stain a bit, it bothers him as he would like his clothes to be free of stains; even the smallest that no one would notice. Hand washing them wouldn't help that as there is a chance he'll make the stain worse.

The only option is to take both of his shirt and sweater off and let it wash in the washing machine and hopes that either Xander or Leo would be generous enough to loan him a spare shirt.

As he's took off both his sweater and shirt off, Tsubaki looked at both of his arms, elastic bandages wrapped up to his elbows. The bandages did show some blood on it and it's starting to fall apart, so he can replace them later. Unfortunately, the roll of elastic bandage is in his backpack, which is upstairs at Kamui's room.

Sighing deeply, Tsubaki unraveled the bandages out of his arms, revealing a couple of red marks on him, most of them perfectly straight and a few curved. Just seeing these scars made Tsubaki shiver and bit his lip hard, to the point he almost made his lip bleed. He really hoped that no one enters the bathroom and sees these scars, especially Kamui. If that's the case, he can always make an excuse that they came because of his part-time job since that's where some of them came from. Yet most of them…

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Tsubaki, is everything okay in there?"

 _Oh, shit!_ Tsubaki cursed in his mind that Xander is checking up on him instead of Kamui.

"Uh, yeah. I'm good, but I need my clothes to be washed," Tsubaki replied to the eldest brother. "Do you have a spare shirt I can borrow for the time being?"

"Of course," Xander answered. "Just wait a moment."

"Okay."

Tsubaki sighed deeply as he's so lucky that Xander didn't ask if he can enter. Otherwise, the eldest brother would ask the red-head a lot of questions involving his scars. And that can eventually lead to Tsubaki forcing himself say:

 _ **"I cut myself. Disgusting, isn't it."**_

While waiting for Xander to come back with a clean shirt, Tsubaki stared at the mirror, mainly at the scars that he caused himself two weeks ago.

 **Look at yourself, Tsubaki. You're disgusting.**

 _I'm not._ Tsubaki shook his head, trying to get that harsh voice out of his mind.

 **Are you sure? Because you are based on those scars. What will everyone think when they see them?**

 _Hinata has seen them. The Fujitas has seen them. Even Silas has seen my scars and none of them see me as disgusting! They still like me, even with these scars!_

 **But what about Kamui?**

Tsubaki's eyes grew wide in horror when his negative voice mentioned Kamui.

 _Kamui? She likes me for who I am, perfect or not!_

 **You say that now, but as time goes on, she'll eventually find those hideous marks on you and will say you're not perfect! A liar! A fraud!**

 _No! That's not true!_ Tsubaki placed both of his hands at the mirror, looking at the reflection of his face and his arms, both of his hands shaking.

 **And what will happen next? She'll tell her Xander, then the rest of the family, and they'll go on and spread it around to their friends, and so on, spreading like a virus.**

 _Shut up…_

 **Even if you try to stop it from spreading, it'll be too late. No one will respect you…**

 _Shut up…_

 **No one will ever talk to you…**

 _Shut up…_

 **No one will ever fall in love with you…**

 _Shut up…_

 **You'll be all alone. Your father will leave you, your friends will leave you…**

 _Shut up…_ Tsubaki looked up to see his reflection smiling at him, eyes glaring at Tsubaki's wide eyes.

No, no, no! He must be imagining this!

 **Especially Kamui. She'll be the last person you'll see before you die with a frown on your face.**

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Tsubaki yelled at his reflection, banging at the mirror with both of his hands rolled up into fists, with his left causing to smash parts of the mirror, and making his hand bleed. Now he has something else to wrap up. Not to mention…

"Xander…"

Oh, gods! He'll notice not only Tsubaki's scars, but his bleeding hand. Luckily, there's no mirror shards on his hand, but still!

Tsubaki attempted to wipe away the blood with the towel, but the blood kept leaking out, so Tsubaki grabbed the towel out of the wrack and wrapped it around his left hand.

Breathing in and out heavily, Tsubaki barely heard Xander's voice, alongside the knocking at the door, causing him to drop the towel to the ground.

"…I heard some yelling and something breaking. Is everything alright, Tsubaki?"

Not good…

"Y-yes," Tsubaki attempted to lie to Xander. However…

"I doubt it. Open the door immediately."

With no choice, Tsubaki slowly unlocked the door and opened it to reveal Xander holding a folded black and purple shirt in his hands, and his eyes looking down at Tsubaki's scars in his arms, alongside his bleeding left hand.

"I… I'm sorry…" Tsubaki said to Xander, taking the shirt from him and putting it on.

"Tsubaki, what happened to your-" Xander didn't need to finish his question as he looked at Tsubaki's bleeding hand, alongside the broken mirror shards on the ground. "Oh, gods."

"I'm sorry…"

"One more question. How did you get those scars?"

Shit. Tsubaki didn't want to hear this question from Xander at all.

"Uh… I…" He tried to use the excuse he usually gives to others, but for some reason, he couldn't say it to Xander.

Sighing, Xander told the red-head, "Look. If you don't want to answer that question right now, it's alright. But I must treat your wounds before it gets too serious. Is that alright for you?"

"Yes, Xander."

Way too close for him.

* * *

 **"What do you mean by that?" Tsubomi asked Kazuya.**

 _"For starters, no one is perfect in this world," Kazuya started answering Tsubomi's question. "Second of all, if you were perfect, you'd be a robot."_

 **"Excuse me?!" Tsubomi wanted to hit Kazuya in the head, but the best that she can do is fling her mechanical pencil at the brunette's face.**

 _"Ouch, little bud."_

 **"I am not a robot! If I were one, I wouldn't be so… so…" Pissed is what she could have said to Kazuya, but she didn't manage to get it out of her mouth.**

 _"Okay! Point taken, little bud!"_

 **"Tsubomi! Call me by my first name or you'll get more mechanical pencils in your face!" Tsubomi threatened Kazuya.**

 _"Gotcha, Tsubomi." Kazuya smiled at the black-haired girl as the two of them are eating their lunch._

 **A few minutes passed by before Kazuya broke the silence by saying, "Let's play 20 questions."**

 _"Why?" Tsubomi wondered, closing her journal as she realized she's not going to get some studying done thanks to him._

 **"Come on. I want to know you. So, asking questions would be the most easiest way to know each other a bit better."**

 _"Alright. Ask away."_

 **"Question 1: Which season do you like the most?"**

 _"Spring. The weather is always nice, and never too hot or too cold. You?"_

 **"Summer! School is out for that season! Next question: Who do you like the most? Your mom or dad?"**

 _"Neither… My mom is dead while my relationship with my dad is…"_

 **Something no one should ever experience.**

* * *

 **Author's Note: Well, gods! That somehow took longer to write, along with the fact that it's way longer than any of my chapters (the hell?)! Anyway, this chapter is slowly starting to get a bit darker, but there's still some fluffy moments in here; especially with our main pair.**

 **So I hope you liked it and let's pray to the gods that Echoes doesn't distract me too much from writing!**

 **Have a good day! ;D**


	5. Talks of Secrets and Nightmares

Nothing. Wherever Tsubaki goes in the dark hallways, there's nothing. No familiar faces. No one talking. No noises. It's been like this since he entered the school. There wasn't any notification that school ended up being canceled for the day due to certain circumstances. Or maybe the school is under lockdown. No. If that were the case, then someone would urge Tsubaki to come to the closest classroom.

The front doors were open. There's cars in both the faculty and student parking lot, so school is going on today.

But why are the lights off? How come no one's in the hall-

 _"…_ _really true_ _?"_

Tsubaki heard a voice and decided to find the trace of it, increasingly growing louder and louder when he tried to find the source of the voice. As he's trying to find it, more voices started to appear; whispers that Tsubaki can hear.

 _"…Such a liar."_

 _"…_ _He looks handsome, but he's really disgusting on the inside."_

 _"…He should leave if he's so perfect…"_

 _"…Nobody likes him…"_

 _"…Kill yourself, Mr. Perfect!"_

Tsubaki wanted all of these voices to stop. Even if they're from strangers, it hurts him on the inside that this is what people really thought of him. But as he continued finding the voice that's getting louder, he sees familiar people saying similar things.

 _"Please, Tsubaki. S-stop lying to e-everyone."_ Sakura in tears.

 _"Sakura is miserable because of you!"_ Hana embracing Sakura, telling her she'll be okay.

 _"I don't want to be around you anymore, Baki. Or rather, Tsubaka."_ Hinata ripping a picture of the two of them and tossing it into the trash can.

 _"Get lost, Mr. Perfect. Then maybe my parents can stop talking about you for once."_ Severa pointing at him.

"Shut up!" Tsubaki demanded everyone around him as he continued to find the voice, only for the negative voices to grow worse, and one of the figures stuck their leg out, causing Tsubaki to trip and fall onto the tile ground. As he's trying to get up, he spotted Kamui holding out her hand with a smile on her face. Grabbing her hand, Kamui pulled Tsubaki off the ground and embraced the red-head, patting his head.

"You okay, Tsubaki?" asked Kamui.

"Y-yes," Tsubaki can only say to the blond, tears starting to form in his eyes. "These voices are hurting me and… and…"

"It's alright, Tsubaki. No one will hurt you anymore."

In an instant, everyone around Kamui and Tsubaki suddenly vanished, voices fading away to the relief of the red-head…

 **"Except yourself."**

Tsubaki's eyes grew wide in horror to Kamui's words and instantly letting go of the blond's embrace. He looked at his hands and noticed that his bandages from both of his arms and his left hand were gone! Not only that, fresh blood is coming out of the cuts, some dripping into the tiled floor!

"K-Kamui! I can-" Tsubaki attempted to speak to the blond, but she just started to walk away from the red-head before he can finish his sentence. "Wait!"

Tsubaki was about to run until somebody grabbed his arm, nails pinching his skin. He turned around to see himself dressed in a black suit holding a bouquet of pink camellias, most of the petals having blood stains on them.

"No… No, no, no, no!" Tsubaki screamed, shaking his head in frustration. "This can't be…!"

"You better believe it, Tsubaka," the clone said, smiling and glaring at his distressed counterpart, tossing the bouquet of bloodied camellias to him.

Tsubaki didn't bother catching the bouquet as it mirrors him: beautiful yet disgusting with the blood on it. His knees were shaking, slowly going down to the floor as he started to scream, hands covering his eyes; probably to prevent his own clone from making fun of him.

"That's right, Tsubaka. Cry. Cry like the little bitch you are!" his clone demanded, pulling a small pistol out of his pockets and placing it on Tsubaki's head.

When he felt the gun on his head, Tsubaki attempted to grab it out of his clone's hand, only for the clone to slap him in the face and placed the gun on his forehead.

"Nice effort, but that's not enough to save you," the clone said to Tsubaki. "Like I told you before, you'll die alone! And no one will even give a shit about you if you die, not even Kamui!"

"That's not true!" Tsubaki retaliated to his clone, denying these words.

"She left you to die by me. Or rather, left you to die by a better version of you: me. Now shut up and die."

BANG!

* * *

"NOOOOO!"

Tsubaki bolted up from his sleep, rapidly breathing in and out after that gods awful nightmare he had, along with hugging Tsubasa tightly. He checked his arms and left hand to see if the bandages weren't off and he didn't put any blood on either the sheets or the couch. Luckily, none of them happened as the newly wrapped bandages were on him, with the left hand having some blood stains showing. Along with the fact the sheets or the couch had blood stains on them. If that were the case, he'd have some explaining to do.

And of all the times he had to get a nightmare and scream, it had to be when he's still at Kamui's house. Tsubaki and Sakura were supposed to be out of the house by 7 or 8, but the heavy thunderstorm is going around until 4 AM, meaning the two has to stay here for the night, much to the joy of Elise and to the dismay of Leo. Sakura is sleeping at Elise's room, while Tsubaki ended up sleeping on the living room couch with a magenta blanket loaned by Camilla and wearing Xander's white t-shirt with a black bunny, alongside blue sweatpants. He looked at the time on his phone since it's still dark outside, along with the rain and thunder still going on.

2:06 AM.

He only had three hours of sleep… And he and Sakura are going to leave at 9 AM. He's lucky that it's the weekend and not a school day. Otherwise, there would be problems.

Tsubaki could go back to sleep but…

 _ **"…** **you'll die alone! And no one will even give a shit** **about you** **if you die, not even Kamui!"**_

 _No. I don't want to experience that again tonight!_ Tsubaki thought to himself as he got off the couch, still holding onto Tsubasa and made his way to the kitchen despite the house being dark for the most part.

Once he's in the kitchen, Tsubaki flicked the light switch on, the lights blinding Tsubaki for three seconds before his eyes got used to it. He knows that he shouldn't be doing this: going through someone else's refrigerator (besides Hinata's and Sakura's) just to get something to drink. In this case, he needed some warm milk after the nightmare he has been through. It always helped him not only for him to sleep, but to prevent nightmares for the remainder of the night. Always been like this since he was young.

As he got the carton of milk from the fridge, Tsubaki was about to go through the cupboard when he heard some footsteps coming into the kitchen. The person coming here didn't go down the stairs; otherwise the stairs would have made some creaking noise. Elise, Leo, Kamui, and Sakura were upstairs, so either Camilla or Xander is making their way since their rooms are downstairs. Probably to find out who screamed in the middle of the night, along with why the lights in the kitchen is on.

A few seconds passed and Xander entered the kitchen, closing his eyes a bit as he's trying to get used to the bright light in here.

Yawning, the blond asked, "Getting a last minute drink, Tsubaki?"

"Y-yeah. I had a nightmare." Tsubaki almost wanted to break when saying the last word to Xander. "And I couldn't sleep after that."

"I see." Xander made his way to the cupboard and proceeded with grabbing two mugs (one light blue and the other that's white with a bunny face on the front) and pouring a fair amount of milk on the mugs. "Do you mind talking about it with me? It'll just be between us, I swear."

 _No._

"Sure. I'd like to get it out of my system," Tsubaki replied as he watched Xander placing the two mugs of milk into the microwave.

 _You idiot! You should have kept your mouth shut!_

While Xander is making hot chocolate for the both of them (not that there's anything wrong with that), Tsubaki is sitting at a chair, clenching his stuffed Pegasus tightly, nervous about telling Xander about his nightmare. Especially…

 **"No one will hurt you anymore."**

 **"Except yourself."**

Telling Xander about the cuts in his arms earlier was hard enough. Tsubaki barely had enough courage to tell Xander:

 _"I work part-time at a pet store and I look out after the animals at times. Of course, this means a bunch of dogs and cats get their claws on me at times. But I do take care of my wounds after work, don't worry!"_

And he told this to Kamui and her siblings. Everyone bought the lie. Well, it technically wasn't a lie since some of the cuts were from various of animals (dogs, cats, and birds), but for the most part…

"Tsubaki?" the red-head looked up to see that Xander placed the bunny mug in front of him at the table. "It's still a bit hot, so drink carefully. Alright, Tsubaki?"

"Okay. _**Thanks, father.**_ "

 _ **Oh,** **fuck** **.**_ Tsubaki heavily cursed in his thoughts on what he said to Xander.

As Xander is taking a sip from his hot chocolate, he placed it on the table after he heard what Tsubaki had said. It's not the first time someone other than his siblings called him 'father' (or any variation of it such as 'dad') on accident. Hell, a few of his students said 'father' to him, mainly freshmen and even some juniors as well.

"Gods, Xander. I-I didn't mean to say- It just-" Tsubaki slammed his head on the table, struggling to come up with an explanation as to why he said 'father' to Xander. "Never mind. You're going to tell everyone about this. Am I right?"

"No."

Tsubaki lifted his head up when he heard Xander's response to the red-head's question.

"You sure about this?" Tsubaki asked Xander.

"Of course," Xander answered. "Besides, I've already made a promise that I won't tell anyone about this conversation. Not even Kamui."

Sighing and grabbing the mug with Tsubasa on his lap, Tsubaki replied to the blond, "Alright. I trust your word."

"Okay. Anyway, before you can discuss about the nightmare you had, mind telling me why you called me 'father'?"

"It's… Well…" Gods, just coming up an answer is making Tsubaki about to break the mug. Just barely as he managed to answer to Xander, "I don't know how many times you've got this answer from others, but you act like one. A responsible father to be precise."

Probably more than his father.

"I've had many times where people thought I was a father," Xander added. Most of the time when people asked if Xander is a parent, he's usually with Elise. "I just simply answer that I'm a guardian. And that sometimes follow up with if I'm single or not, which should be obvious at this point."

Busy with teaching his students, plus grading said students' work, and taking care of his younger siblings that are still in school equals little time for dates in Xander's schedule.

"It is," Tsubaki agreed as he took a quick sip of his hot chocolate. "Guess that answer works for you?"

"Yes." Xander nodded his head. "Just try not to call-"

"I promise, Xander." Tsubaki answered, knowing what the blond was going to say to him. "Especially in front of your family."

"Right. Moving on," Xander started his sentence as he grabbed his mug, "Care to describe your nightmare to me?"

Tsubaki didn't say anything to Xander; hands gripping tightly onto the handle of his mug. Some of the things will be easier to tell to Xander, such as the cruel remarks from people and his other-self killing him at the end of his nightmare, but the others…

 **"** **Except yourself."**

Probably by the time he's finished explaining his nightmare to Xander, the blond would secretly call him 'disgusting' when Tsubaki isn't looking.

"Let me rephrase that question," says Xander when he noticed that Tsubaki isn't answering. "What do you strongly remember about your nightmare?"

Loosening his grip from the mug handle, he calmly started to answer to Xander, "I remember being at school where it was dark… And people saying cruel things about me…"

Xander didn't even wanted to know what those people in Tsubaki's dream/nightmare were saying since teenagers can say the most cruelest things intentionally to someone else.

"After that, Kamui came to comfort me, smiling and telling me nobody can harm me." Now his grip on the handle is getting tighter, where he feels like he'll break the mug. "Until she told me that…"

Noticing Tsubaki's nervous grip on the handle, Xander immediately stopped drinking from his mug and placed one of his hands on top of Tsubaki's in order for him to relax his grip.

Sighing, Tsubaki's hands released from the handle, and grabbed onto Tsubasa, hugging it close to his chest. He didn't care if Xander saw him like this. The blond already saw Tsubasa anyway and he did stated to Tsubaki earlier that he understood the feeling of having a girly stuffed animal. Maybe Xander secretly has a stuffed cat in his room or something…? Who knows…

"Sorry," Tsubaki said about his tight grip on the mug. "Anyway, during that embrace with Kamui, she told me that nobody can harm me… except…" Pausing his sentence, Tsubaki started to unwrap the bandages from his left arm, revealing red marks on them in different lengths, most of them being perfectly straight. Better to show rather than straight out tell Xander.

When Xander saw the marks on Tsubaki earlier, he thought of something… disturbing about how he obtained them. Once Tsubaki explained to everyone about said red marks, Xander was relieved that it wasn't from self-harm.

Or at least until now…

"Tsubaki…" Xander can only manage to say after seeing the marks again. "Is that-"

"Yes… I did this… to myself," Tsubaki said in a shaky voice, holding Tsubasa tighter onto his chest. "There. I said it. Mr. Perfect here cuts himself when no one is looking…"

"Tsubaki…"

"And I have a stuffed animal that's extremely girly for my age and I still sleep with it every night…" Tsubaki kept on going with making criticisms of himself, ignoring Xander.

"Tsubaki…"

"And I have nightmares almost every night about everyone laughing at me for not being the perfect man they expect me to be…"

"Tsubaki, please-"

"And everyone thinks I have the most **perfect** life since I'm so good at everything." Tsubaki's voice started to grow louder and more furious, putting a lot of emphasis on the word 'perfect'. "When in reality it's just me all alone in the house and hoping to get praise from my father whenever he's-"

All of a sudden, Xander slammed his hand onto the table in order for Tsubaki to cease his rant and for Xander to at least finish one of his sentences.

"I apologize for doing that, Tsubaki," Xander said, noticing that Tsubaki is shaking a bit, clenching Tsubasa even tighter, some of his nails almost piercing onto the back of Tsubasa's head.

"I… It's fine…" Tsubaki replied to Xander. "I just…"

"Wanted to get some stuff out of your mind. Is that right?"

Tsubaki slowly nodded his head.

"You know, all the stuff you said, I can understand-"

"Don't," Tsubaki interrupted Xander, the red-head still clenching tightly to Tsubasa.

"Excuse me?"

"Please don't say you understand what I'm feeling. You're only saying that because you're taking pity on me and trying to make me feel better. Is that right? Just like when you told me about Tsubasa earlier?!" Tsubaki angrily questioned Xander. It's not the first time an adult used the phrase 'I understand' to him, but he doubts that they really know what he goes through on a weekly basis.

Sighing, Xander got up from the table and left the kitchen to get something from the living room. Xander lifted one of the pillows from the couch (not the one Tsubaki is sleeping from) and found a white stuffed bunny with a purple and black bow-tie underneath the pillow. Tsubaki found it earlier before he was going to sleep and thought the bunny was Elise's or Kamui's. But now…

Once Xander returned to the kitchen and sat back down on his chair, he placed the bunny onto the table and said, "This is Marx. He's been with me ever since I was three."

It's hard to believe that Marx is more than twenty years old due to the fact that his fur is free of any stains and the bow didn't show signs of any tears. Xander must have taken good care of Marx just like how Tsubaki manages to make sure Tsubasa is looking new and clean about every two months. And how hard to believe someone like Xander would have a stuffed bunny. But looking at the fact that Xander has a bunny shirt and a mug, him owning a stuffed bunny doesn't surprise anyone except for those who don't know him.

"My birth mother gave it to me as a birthday present," Xander continued to explain.

"Birth mother?" Tsubaki questioned Xander about that. He hopes it's not something too complicated.

"I don't want to go into too much details about it. You'll think it came straight out of a bad soap opera if I explain it to you," Xander pointed out.

Tsubaki nodded as he understands what Xander is talking about. Thank the gods he doesn't have to hear it. For now at least.

"Anyway, just like with most kids and their favorite toy, I took Marx wherever I went and would always sleep with me every night," Xander said, taking the white bunny off of the table and placed the stuffed animal on his lap.

"Just like me…" Tsubaki muttered as he glanced at Tsubasa.

"Yes. Even when I was in high school, I still slept with Marx and sometimes I secretly stuff him in my backpack." Xander let out a small chuckle before sighing heavily and continuing his story. "But enough about Marx. Just like with the stuffed animal, I especially understand your pain."

"Everything?"

Xander nodded his head, hands on the mug.

"As you know, I'm the eldest brother, so I had a lot of pressure when it comes to being the perfect brother to my family. Especially my father. He expected me to be the perfect son." Xander's gripped onto the handle a little tight, but not to the point of shattering it. "At first, my father would praise me whenever I get high achievements at school. Whether it would be perfect attendance or all A's, father would smile at me, telling me I did a great job and encouraged me to work harder. Honestly, that made me happy."

Just like Tsubaki's father.

"But during my freshman year in high school, my birth mother died and father fell into a deep depression…" Xander managed to choke out. "He started to drink more than he did, left the house more to visit with multiple women…"

That's probably part of the 'bad soap opera' bit that Xander didn't want to explain in large detail.

"Point is, father payed less attention to his family, not even to Elise when she was born," Xander said, sighing a bit loudly than he expected. "And when he did noticed us, especially me, it was painful…"

Xander can remember the times his father, Garon, slapped him in the face for various reasons such as him bringing a report card with one B and the remaining grades being A's, coming home late despite having a good excuse, and willing to take the pain for his siblings; especially Elise as she's frail and Kamui who's punished more compared to everyone else for petty reasons. Yet…

"I received the most pain out of everyone from father. By the time I graduated out of high school, I was used to any pain that's lashed out on me. Some say it's a blessing, but…"

"But what?" Tsubaki wondered, holding onto Tsubasa.

"But as I grew used to the pain, **I was also addicted to it.** **In fact, I craved it.** "

Tsubaki almost dropped Tsubasa as he was able to put the pieces together of what Xander said. Pain from his father, growing used to the pain and eventually wanted more of it… Oh, gods! The red-head wouldn't think that Xander would do **that** as well! Though to be fair, Xander didn't think Tsubaki would do **that** too. Guess Xander really did know what Tsubaki is going through.

"During my years at university, I'd harm myself whenever I got stressed or felt like I wasn't doing my absolute best. And I did it in different ways besides cutting myself."

Oh, how Xander remembers clearly the times he pinched himself too hard it actually caused him to bleed at times, along with banging his head on the desk, and even punching the walls until his hands were red. He had to make up various of excuses to his roommate about his injuries, and luckily for him, the roommate fell for the lies and even offered to treat Xander's wounds.

"I knew it was wrong to do this, but I felt empty without any pain," Xander continued. "It gotten worse after father died a month before my first semester was over…"

"What?" Tsubaki can only say.

"His death led me to have more responsibilities than ever. I visited my siblings every day after my classes were done. And I had to get a part-time job on campus just to help pay for… everything. The bills, food for my siblings and myself, and Camilla's funds for college. And yet I had time to inflict pain to myself every night. It was to the point my roommate stopped asking me about these wounds."

Sighing deeply, Xander continued his story, "This lasted until two years later where…"

As Xander is explaining, he can feel his eyes forming tears, one slowly coming out of his left eye. It's painful to think about this event again. Especially…

 _"_ _Big brother! Why?! Why are you doing this to yourself?!"_

"My siblings found out when they visited me. Kamui cried for minutes when she looked at my wounds…"

Tsubaki can only imagine that Kamui will do the same if she were to find out that most of his cut marks were from himself rather than from the animals at his job.

"Xander…" Tsubaki can only say after hearing that part. "I- I didn't know…"

Sighing, Xander continued, "Well, when my siblings found out, they weren't mad about it, but instead were concerned, asking questions and comforting me. After that, I slowly stopped inflicting pain to myself, and by the time I graduated-"

"You didn't harm yourself anymore," Tsubaki finished Xander's sentence. "Oh, gods… Xander, I'm sorry I yelled at you for not understanding my pain, yet you actually do. I feel like an idiot after that."

"It's fine," Xander replied. "Besides, you're not the first person I told my story to."

"Right."

After that, the two didn't say a word and the sounds that surrounded the kitchen were the sounds of the rain and thunder from outside. It wasn't until Tsubaki broke the silence by saying, "Well…" that caught Xander's attention.

"Yes?" Xander said, now drinking his hot chocolate.

"I guess it seems fair to tell you why I started to harm myself." Tsubaki sighed deeply before he let his darkest secret out. "Ever since I was young, my father always told me that in order for everyone to respect me, I must be perfect. Anything less than that, I'm worthless."

He can't back out of it now. Now, he must explain his troubles to Xander as he can relate to the red-head.

"Everyday, I've put my all in anything I do to please everyone around me, especially my father. If I accomplish anything he believes to be not perfect, he scolds me when we're alone," Tsubaki said, now letting Tsubasa sit on his lap. "Never in public. He didn't want anyone to see him rant to his 'perfect' son. That could ruin his reputation. And honestly, that's what he cares about: the family reputation. Not me."

 _ **"**_ _ **I expect good… No. Perfect things from you, young man! Do. You. Understand?"**_

"And sometimes, my father will say something to me that breaks me. Especially when I was about to go to high school. He told me…"

 _ **"**_ _ **I'm lucky you got this far with high**_ _ **achievements and**_ _ **praise. Any major screw ups in your time at high school, your entries to any top universities will be ruined and I won't dare recognize you as my son."**_

During dinner at a restaurant that requires a month reservation. Tsubaki was pretty lucky that he didn't cry in front of his father, nor did anyone else heard that comment. He barely even touched his dinner after that comment.

"I kept those words, along with the ones my father told me at a young age, locked in my heart. I made sure I must get high marks in every class and hide any pain from everyone. Any mistake I made, a new scar was added into my arm."

One small cut for missing an easy question on a test. Answering a question wrong in front of the class. Getting a nasty bruise during PE by a dodge ball. Pissing off the wrong student and let said student make a long rant on Tsubaki.

"I only made one cut per day, but that slowly increased to two, and eventually, I lost control of myself, making many cuts, almost twenty per day at worst. Eventually, some people found out."

First Sakura when she accidentally entered his room due to his door being partially opened. Then Sakrua's entire family when they asked questions, which eventually led to Tsubaki spilling his secret. His counselor for ten years discovered it during one of their weekly meetings. Hinata found out when he peaked at Tsubaki's diary on accident (and apologized later). And Silas found out later when they were working on a school project.

"They were all concerned about me, and wanted to help me with this. And for a while, it worked. I grew more happier about myself, and at the same time, harmed myself less and stopped soon, and managed to get good grades I was proud of. It lasted the rest of my freshman year. But in the middle of my sophomore year…"

Oh, gods. Not this…

"I resorted to it after my father heavily insulted me for… for…"

 _ **"**_ _ **Disgusting."**_

Tsubaki was about to choke out the last words until Xander placed both of his hands onto Tsubaki's, and saying, "If it's hard for you to say it, then don't force yourself."

"But-"

"It's okay."

Sighing heavily, Tsubaki continued, "Anyway, I continued to harm myself, but not in the extreme fashion I did in freshman year. Now, there are weeks where I'm content with myself, other times, I felt I need a way to remove my pain whenever I felt so… disgusting. And there you go."

After finishing that hellish story that's been locked in him for so long, Tsubaki finally took a long sip of his hot chocolate and look at Xander, trying to comprehend what he just heard from him. Xander honestly never expected for Tsubaki to have this much troubles in his life. Stress from school, sure, Xander expected it. But self-harming and parental issues? That's not what someone expects when they see Mr. Perfect.

There was silence that followed after that conversation, but Xander broke it, "Tsubaki, like I said earlier, I understand what you're going through. It's tough to break out of the habit, and you feel like nothing at times, but know this. You have one more person to help you with this."

Finishing his drink, Tsubaki asked, "You promise?"

"Whenever I have the time. And yes, this conversation is between you and me."

"Okay. Thanks for listening, Xander. And for the hot chocolate as well." Tsubaki got up from his chair, grabbing both the mug and Tsubasa before he placed the mug on the sink and was ready to go back to sleep.

As the red-head lied onto the couch with the blankets, Xander walked out of the kitchen, lights off, saying to Tsubaki, "Good night, Tsubaki."

After telling all his worries to Xander, Tsubaki feels like that he's not going to have any nightmares for the rest of the night. Hugging Tsubasa close to his chest, Tsubaki closed his eyes and slowly, but surly, he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Early morning, Tsubaki woke up to the sound of giggling and spotted both Sakura and Elise hiding behind the couch, with the latter trying to contain her laughter. Sakura, on the other hand, is mumbling to herself about how things aren't going to be good.

Curious, Tsubaki got off the couch and went to the girl's hiding spot and asked them, "What are you doing?"

"Oh… Waiting for Leo to wake up," Elise answered, smiling to him. "It's 7:45, and he usually-"

"OH, GODS! WHY IS THERE A SNAKE IN MY ROOM?! HOW DID IT- FUCK! IT'S ON ME!"

Elise burst into laughter, while Sakura giggled a little when they both heard Leo yell from upstairs. Not too later, Leo is rushing down the stairs, with a red snake wrapped on his left arm. He wanted to shake it off, but knew it's a bad idea as there's the risk of this snake biting him, and the bite might contain some deadly venom. So the only choice for Leo is to not do anything rash and hopes to get the snake off of him without scaring it.

Both girls stopped laughing when Leo glared at them, mainly scaring Sakura as she doesn't like it when people are angry at her.

"Your laughter is a dead give away that you did this. Correct?" Leo asked the two young girls.

"Y-yes…" Sakura meekly answered. "I-It was Elise's idea. Not mine!"

"I knew it." Leo turned to his younger sister, who's smiling at him like nothing major happened to him. "How in the hell did you manage to pull this off? I bet Mr. Perfect helped you. Is that it?!"

"What? I had no part in this. I swear to the gods," Tsubaki reassured the tense blond. Honestly, he thought Leo wouldn't assume that Tsubaki would be part of a prank that's pulled off by some middle school girls.

"Yeah! He just woke up," Elise jumped into their conversation, defending the red-head. "And besides, I found the snake in my room and thought it would be funny if Sakura and I put one on you. And I was right! You were screaming like a girl!"

"I. WAS. NOT!"

Eventually, Kamui is walking down the stairs, while Xander and Camilla exited out of their rooms to see what the loud noise was all about. As they arrived in the living room, the three didn't say anything as they spotted a snake wrapped in Leo's left arm. Fortunately, the snake didn't show any signs of harming Leo or moving at all. Still…

"Uh… Can someone explain what's going on?" Kamui asked, staring at the snake.

"Well she can explain very well." Leo pointed to Elise. "Isn't that right-"

"Winter!" Camilla interrupted Leo's sentence as she gently grabbed the snake off of Leo's arm. Said snake didn't even react violently, but instead wrapped around Camilla's right arm. "Oh, thank the gods. I've been looking for her all morning!"

"Huh?" Everyone at this point is confused.

"Long story short, Felicia and Flora asked me to take care of their pet snake, Winter, for the weekend. She's pretty harmless and does something really cute when you do this."

Camilla sticks out her tongue a little bit, and Winter mirrored her action with her slim yet long tongue. Elise tried it as well, with the snake repeating it as well.

"Aw! She's cute!" Elise squealed, touching Winter's scales with her finger. "So, what type of snake is she?"

"Winter is a milk snake, and they're really easy to take care of…" Camilla started to explain to Elise, along with Sakura after she decided to feel Winter's scales.

While Camilla was explaining about Winter's behavior to the middle school girls and Leo, Kamui asked Tsubaki, "Did you sleep well?"

Tsubaki can only think of the nightmare where Kamui was comforting him, only for her to insult him and leave him to die to his clone.

"I woke up in the middle of the night, but fell asleep after getting some hot chocolate," Tsubaki explained to Kamui. Of course, he had to leave the part about his conversation he had with Xander. And the nightmare.

"Oh. That's nice. For a minute, I thought you'd be uncomfortable because of the storm and you weren't at your home," Kamui said.

"No. I wasn't. Besides, the dream I had was nice."

After the talk with Xander.

"Really? You mind telling me the details?"

"Nope."

 _Because you and I were in it._

* * *

 _After a long day at school, Tsubomi is finally home. She couldn't be more relieved as it means she doesn't have to be with Kazuya for the rest of the day. Or hear him at least. Tsubomi plopped down into her bed and pulled her phone from her hoodie pocket instead of doing her homework as she's completed most of them and they aren't due until Thursday._

 **There were three missed calls on her contacts list. Two of them were from her dad and had a voicemail on both. She probably knows what they contain anyway. The last one is an unknown number-**

 _DING!_

 **"Huh?" Tsubomi checked that the same unknown number had texted her a message. And assuming the many grammar errors the message had, it's probably someone in her school. Or someone younger that's playing a prank on her.**

 _'Hey lil'bud. Kazuya here. I've got ur digits from ur friends. Wanna hang out? Plz?'_

 **Groaning that it's 'him', Tsubomi quickly typed Kazuya, "No thanks." and placed her phone on her desk and grabbed her laptop off of the desk. Maybe some funny videos can take her mind off of-**

 _DING!_

 **Really? Tsubomi looked at her phone to see what Kazuya sent her.**

 _'_ _You sure? Not even the library?'_

 **Tsubomi sent him "NO! I'm not allowed to leave my house on school days." and she prays that he gets the memo and leaves her alone.**

 _DING!_

 **Now Tsubomi feels stupid for not blocking him when she had the chance.**

 _'_ _Why not? :(' Kazuya's message read._

 **'If I do, my father will personally search me and give me a huge lecture. I don't want that to happen, even if he's out. Now leave me alone, Harrison.'**

* * *

 **Author's Note: Ooh, boy! Now that's some heavy stuff right there from both Tsubaki and Xander. Took a while to write, but I'm happy about how it turned out, especially with the conversation and the nightmare sequence.**

 **And don't worry. The next chapter is going to be A LOT lighter. And filled with dogs...**

 **I hope you liked this chapter and leave a review if you REALLY liked this story so far!**

 **Later! :D**


	6. Ruff I Mean Rough Days

Flipping through the pages of her copy of "The Great Gatsby" and making notes on the pages using her black pen, Kamui is re-reading the second chapter again as there's going to be a couple of questions of them in a quiz tomorrow. It's enough that Anna had assigned the short-story assignment to her students that involved working with a partner. Now Anna thought it would be a great idea that this week would be the perfect timing for them to start reading "The Great Gatsby". Most of the class groaned at that, arguing that it's not fair for her to assign a reading assignment while they were doing a project at the same time. But for Anna:

 _"Hey! You had th_ _at assignment for almost two weeks now. By then, you should be halfway done with it."_

For most of the students, they didn't even complete a single page. Yet Kamui and Tsubaki managed to do more than the required pages. And they're still not done with it.

For now, the two agreed to continue writing the story on Friday once they finished reading the assigned chapters and take the quiz of the first two chapters. Sounds fine. They also agreed to meet up at Rose's Thorn for a two hour study session to review what might be on tomorrow's quiz. Unfortunately…

"Yeah, violence!"

… She's stuck with a study group with Peri and Inigo. While the latter isn't annoying the blond, the former is yelling out the major events that take place in the book, especially a certain part in Chapter 2 of "The Great Gatsby". Initially, Inigo requested to be part of the study group since he has trouble understanding the book, in which both Kamui and Tsubaki agreed. However, Tsubaki was called at the very last minute (the last bell of the day ringed) to fill in someone's shift at his workplace, so he apologized to both Kamui and Inigo, and hoped the former can manage to explain the book to the latter. Kamui was fine with that.

What's not fine is Peri tagging along with her two classmates. Only coming along because Inigo is there and nothing else. And the fact she didn't read a page of the book didn't help as well. Once the three started their study session, Peri started reading and making loud comments that got the attention of some people at the cafe. Said loud comments also distracted Kamui and Inigo on making any progress of understanding the book.

"Ugh…" Inigo groaned loudly, slamming his head onto the table before getting it off. "I can't believe this."

"Me too," Kamui agreed with her blue-haired classmate as she took a sip of her coffee made by her older sister. "But it can't be helped. Tsubaki had to do something that's beyond his control."

"I guess. And with Peri…"

"I wanna rip out Tom's intestines!" Peri yelled at her copy of the book.

Both Kamui and Inigo heavily sighed as Inigo sipped his sweetened green tea and continued reading a certain paragraph in the book that's most likely going to be on the quiz tomorrow.

"Anyway, you mentioned how Myrtle is one of the examples of achieving 'the American dream'. How so?" Inigo asked Kamui.

"Well, she wanted to be a part of luxury, and isn't feeling it with her current lifestyle," Kamui started to explain, "So she desperately wanted to be a part of it, even if it means Tom abuses her in any form. Almost everyone at the time wanted to reach the dream, which is basically work hard and you enjoy life to the fullest. Yet, everyone's dream is different."

"More money and you climb the social ladder," Inigo added, making a note onto his book.

"Basically. Just a little heads up, but as the story goes on, Tom and Daisy can be seen as-"

"A SNAKE!" Peri screeched, tossing her book into the air and falling off her chair.

Confused, the two spotted a red snake slithering onto their table, eventually settling down on Inigo's binder.

"Oh, gods! Get it off!" Inigo squealed, getting off his seat and hiding behind it.

 _Is that…_ Kamui thought as she looked at the snake and got off her seat. It almost looked like the snake that Camilla had to look over a few days ago. Wait a minute…

"Winter!"

Felicia is carrying a small container that's open and rushing to the table where the three teens were, trying to get her pet snake off the table before anything bad happened to her. But as Felicia is getting Winter, Peri almost smacked both Felicia's hand and Winter with a baseball bat that she 'borrowed' from someone that's on a softball team.

"H-hey! That's not nice!" Felicia yelped, dropping the container to the floor.

"Killing is now!" Peri exclaimed as she readied herself to slam the bat at the red snake. She was about to hit Winter until Flora snatched the red snake at the last minute, along with avoiding getting her hand hit by the bat. Noticing that there's no blood, Peri dropped the bat and exclaimed, "WHAT?!"

"Peri, I know that a snake slithering around in a cafe is frightening," Flora started her sentence as she took the baseball bat away from the cotton-candy haired teen, "But Winter's species is very gentle."

"Then how come Winter came out of her container?"

"Well… She has a habit of slithering out of it at times," Flora explained, pointing to the container that Felicia is carrying.

"Y-yeah. The top of it is slightly open and has always been like this since we got Winter," Felicia added, struggling to get the top fully closed to prove to the three teens that this is true rather than making it up.

 _That does explain with the incident on Saturday,_ Kamui thought, remembering how Elise and Sakura (mainly the former) got a hold of it and managed to put it on Leo.

"We could get a new one, but it's pretty expensive to get a container that's large and has functioning lids for Winter." Felicia sighed as she grabbed Winter from Flora's hand and placed the red snake into the container.

"I don't think you won't have to worry about it anymore," Camilla popped into the conversation, wondering what's going on considering the screaming and smacking she has heard in the kitchen. "I can pay for Winter's new container."

"Oh, no! You really shouldn't…" Felicia refused, feeling that it's wrong to take her boss' money just for her personal needs.

"Don't be too shy, Felicia. Besides, you and Flora have been doing a marvelous job since the cafe opened last month. You girls deserve it."

"Gods… That's really sweet of you to do that Camilla," Felicia said.

"In fact, you'll get it in about an hour because…" Camilla pointed to Kamui, returning the bat to the softball team. As soon as the blond is about to go back to her study group, Camilla called out to her younger sister, "Kamui, dear? Can you do me a favor?"

"Sure. What is it?" Kamui asked.

Camilla pulled out her credit card out of her wallet and gave it to Kamui.

"Can you purchase a new snake container for Felicia and Flora? We're kind of busy and by the time we finish cleaning the cafe and close it, the nearest pet store is closed."

"Well… I have to study for a quiz I have in English tomorrow… But…"

Kamui looked at Peri happily chatting with Inigo as if the snake incident had never happened, though the latter is just saying 'uh-huh' while drinking his green tea; pretending that he's 'interested' on what Peri had to say… about ripping intestines from a frog or a bat. To be fair, Kamui would be doing the same thing Inigo is if she were forced to listen to her psychotic classmate.

"Alright. I'll do it," Kamui agreed with her older sister's request.

"Beautiful." Camilla smiled, pointing to the bus stop sign that she can see through the windows. "The bus will take you there, and you'll be there in ten minutes. And if you see a store that features a lizard on top of a bone, you're there."

"Got it," Kamui said as she left the cafe with only Camilla's credit card and her phone at her pockets, waiting for the bus to come.

Honestly, Kamui is glad that she gets a break from the study session. Technically, it's more of an errand rather than a break, but it feels like it to her due to Peri constantly interrupting the sessions multiple times due to her loud comments about the book… and murder. Mainly the latter. Kamui doesn't want to know why Peri of all people is obsessed with murder and blood.

It's lucky that Tsubaki didn't get to witness this incident. Otherwise… Things would get messy.

* * *

"…You're telling me that you're not coming home on Friday, but you'll stay at your-"

He didn't care that his co-workers were suddenly eavesdropping onto the phone call. He didn't care that he raised his voice to the point he could be yelling. No. What really mattered to Tsubaki was what his father had to say… AND calling him while he's at work! Tsubaki is lucky that his father called him during his break and not while he's working. That could have gone worse if customers and his co-workers were listening to it.

"But you promised!" Tsubaki harshly said over the phone. "I remember you three days ago saying that you'll be home and even cook-"

And here comes the PERFECT excuse his father pulls off as to why he can't.

"WHAT?!" he shouted loudly that everyone in the break room was caught off by surprise when 'Mr. Perfect' is screaming at his phone. No one ever expects Mr. Perfect to do something wrong or off putting.

His manager is so going to notice this, but he'll worry about the consequences later.

"All because of your girl-"

 _"_ _My decision is final._ _Good-bye."_

The call ended without Tsubaki getting the chance to say anything else. Gods, Tsubaki didn't need this. Getting called in last minute by his co-worker due to a family emergency doesn't bother him, but his father suddenly breaking a promise to him just makes him want to punch something. Or in this setting, find the nearest squeaky toy and press it hard enough to relieve the fire inside him.

And this isn't the first time Tsubaki had dealt with his father failing to keep his promise that doesn't involve work.

He sighed deeply as he got up from his chair, turned off his phone and placed it in his pockets before going back to work. Besides, his break is almost over anyway. He'll gladly go back to work after the conversation he had with his father.

Right as he left the break room, Tsubaki was met with Takumi, holding three leashes on one hand with small dogs, while he's carrying a black kitten on the other hand that's sleeping. How Takumi managed to do this is beyond Tsubaki.

"You do realize that half the store heard you screaming?" Takumi pointed to the red-head as he handed the dogs on leashes to Tsubaki.

"Oh, gods…" Tsubaki groaned. "Did the manager heard-"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Great," Tsubaki sarcastically replied. "Something to look forward all because of my father."

"Not again." Takumi knew that this can't be good as Tsubaki's father at least comes home once a month, but it seems like this isn't the case as hinted by the red-head screaming at the break room. "Well, you can try to explain to her, and hopefully she'll understand."

"Hope so." Tsubaki looked at the dogs, panting heavily and their tails wagging. "So, do these dogs need to be brought back to the daycare center?"

"Yeah. Their owners should be back in a couple of minutes."

"And the cat?"

And on cue, the kitten woke up, giving a small 'mew' to the two.

"Found her at Shirasagi Park. She doesn't seem to have an owner," Takumi pointed to the kitten's lack of a collar on her. "So I'm guessing it's a stray. Still, I need to take her to the vet and see if she-"

The black kitten meowed loudly and jumped off of Takumi's hand, running across the isles as fast as she can with her short legs.

"Oh, gods!" Takumi exclaimed. "Handle the dogs for me while I get this cat?"

"Got it," Tsubaki replied as he watched Takumi attempting to chase the black kitten that's roaming the store.

Well, there's something that will make Tsubaki forget about his phone call for now.

After placing the three dogs at the daycare center, one brown puppy followed the red-head as he's getting back to restocking the items, or if possible, assist a customer. This isn't the first time a dog from the daycare center had followed Tsubaki, but this particular puppy however has a fixation with him. Tsubaki did fed her, cleaned her, and played with her whenever he can, so it made sense that this puppy really loved him compared to the other employees.

"Sumire, I'm sorry," Tsubaki said to the puppy, kneeling down to her level. "I can't play with you right now."

She whined in response to Tsubaki's answer. Damn it, he can't resist it if a puppy is starting to cry. Especially Sumire!

"Oh, okay. You can follow me while I work," Tsubaki complied to Sumire as he went to one of the isles where there's supposed to be a box that's open, containing cans of dog and cat food.

One by one, Tsubaki placed the cans based on the brand they're from and the sizes as well. He had to replace one of the price tags on a stock of a certain can since his manager told him they'll be on sale for at least two weeks. As he's continuing to work, Sumire jumped onto his lap as he's working on the bottom shelves.

He didn't mind it at all. Just the sight of Sumire makes Tsubaki feel at ease and forget the harshest troubles he had on his mind. And the small kisses. Sumire's kisses that always land on Tsubaki's cheeks.

"Tsubaki?"

In response, the red-head turned around to see Kamui, carrying a large container in her hands.

"Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you were at Rose's Thorn," Tsubaki wondered as he's finishing placing the cans on the shelves.

"Well… Long story short…" Kamui recapped the events to Tsubaki: study group, snake, almost animal murder, and favors for Camilla's employees.

"Gods… I didn't think the study group session went that bad. Did Peri really-"

"Yes, and she was a pain to deal with," Kamui confirmed to her partner. "But enough about the study session, what's with the puppy over there?"

Sumire barked at Kamui while the brown puppy circled around the blond.

"That's Sumire," Tsubaki started to explain. "She's a shiba-inu."

"Aw! She's adorable!" Kamui squealed, gently placing the snake container on the floor as she tried to pet Sumire's coat with her finger. The shiba-inu sniffed Kamui's finger, and then started to lick it. Kamui slowly then placed another finger for Sumire to sniff, and repeated what she did to the other finger. The process was then repeated for the remainder of Kamui's fingers (both from the left and right hand) until Sumire started to lick both of Kamui's hands.

"I don't think I need to explain on how to get Sumire to love you." Tsubaki laughed at how the shiba-inu is still licking Kamui's hands.

"Good. Cause I got it," Kamui said, slowly backing her hands away from the shiba-inu. "Anyway, how old is she?"

"Two months old. Actually, someone brought Sumire here a month ago, and she seems attracted to me the most."

"Is it because you smell like the flower you were named after?"

Oh, dear gods…

"N-no. That's absurd!" Tsubaki denied Kamui's guess.

"Or is it your dashing looks?"

There goes his face, slowly turning red, and his body feeling a bit sweaty despite the air conditioning being up at a decent level.

"I mean, I'll admit, you are handsome. Any girl would fall for someone that's sexy, intelligent-"

"You serious?" Tsubaki interrupted Kamui's sentence, face still red from the blond's comment.

She responded with a simple nod and said, "Absolutely. You can honestly get an A on tomorrow's quiz no problem with little effort."

"Oh, that's not true. I study for my tests and quizzes like everyone else."

"Really?"

"Yes! And I get perfect marks."

"You sure?"

Oh, yes. He did mention to Kamui that he did get a B on one of his quizzes.

"Okay. Mostly perfect marks," Tsubaki grudgingly corrected himself. "But why would you say that I'd get an A without studying?"

"Well, I overheard some people saying you'd get fantastic grades without any effort, when I know it's not true. I just wanted to hear you say… You know…"

"Right." Tsubaki understood what Kamui is saying. "Still, there are some people who make better grades on tests or quizzes than me."

"Like Leo?" Kamui gave out an example.

"Y-yes…"

And Kamui mentioning Leo's name gave Tsubaki an idea. Though this may sound… off putting for him for one second…

"Say, about the quiz we're about to take tomorrow. How about we have, you know, a little competition between us," Tsubaki proposed to the blond.

"W-what?"

"Come on. It'll give both of us motivation on studying for the quiz."

"Alright," Kamui agreed, glancing at Sumire, sniffing at the large container on the floor. "I'm listening."

"So, whoever gets the lower score out of the two of us must sleepover at the winner's house on Friday."

"That's all? Doesn't sound too bad."

"But…"

Oh, no…

"The loser has to sleep with the winner," Tsubaki finished his sentence.

"Huh?!"

Just the thought of sharing a bed with Tsubaki made Kamui scream on the inside. Outside, her face is turning into a slight shade of pink. So no matter if she wins or loses the bet, Kamui has to snuggle with Tsubaki! Yet at the same time, there's a chance she can get Tsubaki to come over to her house again if she manages to score higher than him. Speaking of…

"But what if we somehow got the same grade? Then what?" Kaumi wondered if that certain scenario can happen.

"Ah, yes. We'll let Anna decide," Tsubaki simply answered.

Great. The tiebreaker had to fall into their English teacher. If anything, there's a chance she can rig it and make it fall into her best student: Tsubaki. There's a good chance that Kamui might not win the bet, but there's still a sliver of hope that she can win it.

"Alright then, Tsubaki. I accept your bet," Kamui agreed to Tsubaki's conditions. "But know that I'm not going down that easily."

"Got it," Tsubaki said as he looked to see that Sumire somehow managed to get inside the large container that Kamui was carrying earlier. "Ah! Sumire, please no!"

Quickly, Tsubaki picked up the brown shiba-inu out of the container and carried her in his arms. She licked Tsubaki's cheeks in response, barking happily to the red-head.

"So, I'll see you tomorrow, Tsubaki," Kamui said as she picked up the large container from the floor and making her way to the checkout center and go back to Rose's Thorn.

Tsubaki waved back to the blond before looking at Sumire's eyes and sighing deeply at what he had done.

"I know, Sumire. I sounded selfish out there. Right?"

* * *

Going through her notes from her study session earlier and reading the important events from "The Great Gatsby" one more time, Kamui yawned as she had been through this since she finished eating dinner and showered. She can't let Tsubaki win this bet, despite the fact that there's a big chance that he'll get the higher grade than her. Or worse case scenario, he'll get a perfect score and Kamui came close to it by one point. Or maybe they both fail… Nah. That would never happen.

KNOCK KNOCK!

"Little princess? I have some hot chocolate for you."

"Oh, come in, Xander," Kamui said, placing her pen down on her desk. She really needs something sweet to drink after an hour of studying.

Xander entered Kamui's room, carrying a purple mug with steam coming out of it.

"Be careful, I just made it," Xander warned Kamui, placing the mug on a coaster that Kamui had placed on her desk.

"I can see that," Kamui said, grabbing the mug, blowing off the steam in order to cool down the drink.

"Studying?"

"Yep. I have a quiz tomorrow in English class about the first two chapters of "The Great Gatsby". I have to do well."

"From what I can recall, you're not failing that class," Xander said, remembering the report card Kamui gave to him a few weeks ago that she's passing English.

"Oh, no. It's for a bet that Tsubaki made."

"Hmm? And can you tell me what this bet is?"

"Whoever scores lower has to sleepover at the winner's house. And knowing Tsubaki, I might as well pack my clothes for Friday," Kamui joked, taking a sip out of her hot chocolate.

"Really? Any reason why he decided to have this bet?"

"Well…"

Kamui did recall Tsubaki mentioning that he's often alone in his house almost every day, resulting him to eat by himself at dinner. And even when his father shows up, it's all about one thing only: Tsubaki achieving perfection. Nothing else… At least as far as Kamui knows.

"Yeah… Though it's pretty personal for him," Kamui can explain to Xander without giving away too much information.

"Ah." Unbeknownst to Kamui, Xander knew what she had meant due to Tsubaki's upbringing. "Just do your best on your quiz, Kamui. And if you do have to go to Tsubaki's house, can you ask him the directions since this Saturday is Elise's concert?"

"Of course. Good night, Xander," Kamui said as she went back to reading her notes on her book while drinking her hot chocolate.

"Don't stay up too late," Xander advised as he left his sister's room, gently closing the door to avoid making a loud sound that could scare Kamui (like that would happen).

* * *

 _~Sweet- Sweetly leave me…~_

Listening to the Soarin' Knight's cover of a song titled "Sweetly Leave Me" on repeat over twenty times (yes, he counted), Tsubaki is going over "The Great Gatsby" once again to see if he's missing any obvious details that could be on tomorrow's quiz while lying down on his bed. As he's studying, he can't help but think about what he did.

This bet he made with Kamui is just so Tsubaki wouldn't be all alone in his house. Again. If he wins, Kamui will visit his house for the first time and he'll make her dinner that WAS suppose to be for him and his father. But if he loses, he'll go back to Kamui's house for Friday night and be with all of Kamui's siblings, minus Elise as she's going to sleepover at Sakura's house to prep themselves for their concert on Saturday.

Either way, he'll be with Kamui and he has to share a bed with her. He hasn't shared a bed with anyone besides his mother… and his counselor when he was young.

Just the thought of sharing a bed with Kamui is…

The music suddenly stopped playing and Tsubaki thought Spotify is acting stupid again. He looked at the screen to see the name "Shion Miyazaki" pop up.

"Father…" Tsubaki can only say. Probably to give him more stuff about him not coming home on Friday but staying at his girlfriend's house. Hell, he practically lives there!

Instead of accepting the call, Tsubaki decided to ignore the call and continued to study with the music coming back on.

Once he graduates from High School, he can leave his father and move to a new place when he's in college. He needs to endure it for two more years.

* * *

"… Five more minutes class," Anna announced, looking at her watch as she's hearing her students frantically writing down on their quiz sheet.

Both Tsubaki and Kamui finished their quizzes five minutes ago and are just looking at the clock on the wall. Anna had to make the class do the quiz twenty minutes before the bell rings instead of the beginning of class like most people expected. While waiting, Kamui is scribbling random lines on her free sheet of paper while Tsubaki is tapping his fingers on his desk as quietly as he can in order to not make too much noise.

And of course, Anna is grading their quizzes already as she's marking the papers with her signature red pen. Kamui and Tsubaki informed Anna about the bet they made, in which she agreed to grade their quizzes early on the condition that the loser must wear cat ears and a bell choker tomorrow. Of course. It was either that or she makes the loser give Anna money, which neither didn't want to do anyway.

One by one, the rest of the students managed to finish their quizzes and turn it in to Anna's front desk before she announced that time is up. By then, the bell is close to ringing to signal the end of the day.

"Tsubaki, Kamui, do you mind if you stay after class?" Anna announced to the two, which the class responded with a chorus of "Ooh!".

"Did they cheated?" one of the students speculated.

"That's stupid," Oboro commented to one of them. "Besides, I don't think either of them would cheat."

"Alright, class. Settle-"

Right as Anna was about to finish her sentence, the bell ringed, with everyone rushing out of the classroom with the exception of Kamui, Tsubaki, and Anna. The two students grabbed their backpacks from the ground and their belongings from their desks before walking to Anna's front desk, where she finished marking both of their quizzes.

"'Kay. It didn't took too long to grade," Anna started, handing over the quizzes to both Kamui and Tsubaki. "But… Congrats for getting an A, both of you."

That's a relief that neither of them failed. Kamui and Tsubaki looked at each others' quizzes to see which one had the higher grade.

Kamui: 95

Tsubaki…

 _Oh gods… Better send Xander the address._

Perfect as expected.

* * *

 _After an hour has passed for Tsubomi by reading a novel one of her classmates recommended, she sighed in relief that Kazuya hasn't bothered her by calling her or texting her at all. He probably understood when she finally told him the reason that's both a blessing…_

 **Yet a curse at the same time. No time to go out for a quick walk. No time to go to the local convenience store to go get a snack to eat. And no time to even to go to the library. She's not allowed to leave unless she goes with her father. Having no license doesn't help Tsubomi at all. And even if she did have one, there's only one car, and that belongs to her father; currently at work and not coming home until god knows how long.**

 _He did mention that he won't come back until maybe midnight at worse. Still…_

 **Breaking the rule once wouldn't hurt anyone. All Tsubomi has to do is come back home by 9 PM and her dad will never notice that she left the house at all. Nothing much. But what could she do at 4 PM?**

 _"Alright, Kazuya. Show me something fun_ _tonight."_

* * *

 **Author's Note: Well, right on time before I go back to college in about two days. That doesn't mean this story is dead... Oh no. Just expect updates to be a little late. Besides, I decided to become an English major with a focus on Creative Writing.**

 **Anyway, this chapter is a LOT lighter compared to the last two chapters, though you now know the name of Tsubaki's father.**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!**

 **...Also, hopefully that one reviewer that left a VERY long review that had nothing to do with this story doesn't bother anyone in this site. Please?**

 **See ya soon! ;D**


	7. Paralogue 1: The Night Before

Nothing. Nothing but the utensils making brief contact with the plate when trying to get the fried rice off the plate. The fried rice that Shion has made for years and eating with his son.

Tsubaki didn't expect his father to be home when he came home from school today. In fact, he didn't expect his father to make him dinner at all! Usually when Shion comes home, it's Tsubaki who makes dinner for the two of them; usually fried rice with either chicken or beef. Apparently, the call Tsubaki ignored yesterday was about Shion coming home today to eat dinner with him to make up the fact that Shion is going to be at his girlfriend's house for the weekend.

At this point, Shion practically jumps from not one or two, but three houses. One with Tsubaki, the second one is a close friend to Shion and both of them work at the same place, while the last one is with his girlfriend for eight years. Yet Shion calls Tsubaki at least five times a week on how he's doing and if he's been slacking off at school whenever he can't make it home for the weekend; the time that he should be with his only son. And that's almost all the time.

As Tsubaki is eating the fried rice off his plate, Shion got off his chair and carried his plate, empty glass, and his spoon and fork into the sink, turning the faucet on.

"Any reason why you didn't answer me yesterday, Tsubaki?" Shion demanded as he cleaned his plate.

"I… I was studying for my English quiz," Tsubaki replied, finishing up the last of his fried rice.

"Ah, yes. Your lowest grade according to your last report card."

Tsubaki didn't need to hear that again from his father. Even if it's a report card that any parent would die to see from their children.

"And how well did you do on that quiz?" Shion asked, placing the recently cleaned plate on the dishwasher.

"Perfect, as usual," Tsubaki answered, gently placing his spoon on his plate and drinking the last of his iced tea.

"That's what I like to hear."

 _That's all what you want to hear from me._ Tsubaki wanted to say to his father, but went against it in order to avoid angering his father.

"Enough about English. How about your other subjects?" Shion wondered, sitting back down on his chair.

"All A's, none of them below a 96," Tsubaki informed his father as he finished eating his fried rice. "I hope this is to your liking, father."

"Yes, yes. You are improving, but I want more out of you."

"Of course, father."

No 'great job' or 'I'm very proud of you' like any parent would say when hearing their child accomplished this at school. It's typical for Tsubaki and his father.

DING DONG!

"Hmm? Who could it be at this hour?" Shion muttered to himself as he got up to answer the front door.

Tsubaki looked at the clock at the kitchen, reading 8:45 PM. At this time, most people would be at home getting ready for bed or finish eating dinner.

As his father is answering the door, Tsubaki got up from his chair and picked up his plate, glass, and utensils from his table and to the sink, cleaning them until there's no sign of stains anywhere. Spotless or else… Tsubaki will waste his time trying to make it clean for countless hours.

While cleaning, Tsubaki couldn't help himself but to overhear the conversation that his father is having with the person in the front door.

"… Oh no, just trying to make sure I got the right address when I pick up my younger sister for Saturday…"

"Hmm? What for?" Shion asked the visitor that Tsubaki is so sure that he knew who the visitor is.

"Apparently, my sister, Kamui, is sleeping over…"

Defiantly Xander no doubt. Kamui asked Tsubaki for directions to his house so she can show them to Xander later on and drive there to see if the directions were real and not fake. And Tsubaki thought Xander would just drive by his house to confirm that the directions are correct; not visit his house! That's the last thing the red-head wanted, especially since his father showed up unexpectedly!

"…Really? That's why?" Shion once again asked Xander. "Not often do assigned partners in school get to meet face to face. Let alone meet outside of school. Usually, they use their phones to communicate."

"Or computers," Xander added, "Anyway, I'd like to request that I speak with your son."

"I don't see why not. I'm about to leave anyway after dinner, so feel free to keep Tsubaki a little company for a few minutes."

Xander only nodded in response as he took off his shoes and slipped onto a pair of white slippers since Shion is currently wearing slippers, so Xander thought it would be fair for him to wear them too.

Right as Xander entered the kitchen, Tsubaki finished cleaning his dishes, placing them inside the dishwasher to clean them tomorrow morning.

"I see your father is home for once," Xander commented, taking a seat in one of the chairs.

"Only for dinner. He isn't going to sleep in his room," Tsubaki replied, opening one of the cabinets to grab two mugs; one red and one purple. "Would you like some coffee?"

Sighing, Xander answered, "Sure. I need some caffeine to keep me awake. I have to grade a few more essays before I turn them in tomorrow."

"Hmm? Most of them must have been well-written," Tsubaki added while waiting for the coffee pot to fill up.

"Actually, the remaining papers I need to grade barely has anything written on it."

Tsubaki almost wanted to drop his mug when he heard that.

"W-what? Are you-"

"Yes. While there are students who go beyond expectations, like you," Xander pointed out, making Tsubaki smile a bit, "There exists students who don't even try, only satisfied with putting their name on their paper and that's it."

"And they're suppose to be in high school?!" Tsubaki questioned as he poured the coffee into both mugs and making his way to the table while carrying them.

"Sadly…" Xander saw Tsubaki sitting across him, with the red-head handing the blond a purple mug, filled with coffee, black and steam coming out of it. "Mind if I get some creamer?"

"Of course. It's in the fridge." Tsubaki pointed it to Xander.

While Xander got up from his chair and went to obtain the creamer, Tsubaki stared at the reflection from the black coffee, fading away when he stirred it with his spoon. He looked away to see if his father is done dressing up since his father is going to leave to his girlfriend's house in a few minutes, but no sight of Shion coming down the stairs. He just wants to look 'perfect' for his lover.

Tsubaki looked back at the reflection of his black coffee and he swears to the gods that the reflection is glaring and smiling at him, causing Tsubaki to drop his spoon onto the table. Luckily, Xander didn't notice, so that's a sigh of relief for the red-head. However…

The reflection didn't appear in his coffee, but instead sitting across of him, giving off the same expression as it did in the coffee.

 _"Surprised to see me, Mr. Imperfect?"_ his reflection asked Tsubaki.

Tsubaki didn't want to respond to him as Xander will think that he'll sound and look crazy.

 _"_ _Oh come on. I'm waiting for an answer~!"_ his reflection singed to him.

"Get out," Tsubaki quietly warned his reflection.

 _"_ _Why should I? Is it because of him?"_ the reflection pointed to Xander grabbing the creamer and shutting the door closed. _"I doubt he even cares about you."_

Continuing to speak in a quiet tone as he can able to, Tsubaki replied, "Yes he does. He understands the troubles I'm currently going through. He felt the pain, pressure, and struggles of becoming the perfect person to the people around him."

 _"_ _Bullshit. He's secretly criticizing you to his family, especially to Kamui."_

"You shut up."

 _"_ _Make me. And speaking of her, how would Xander react when you tell him_ _that you'll be sleeping with his little princess? Huh? You wouldn't have time to explain to yourself…"_

"Shut up you…" Tsubaki growled to his reflection.

 _"_ _He'll say that you're_ _a dirty person who wants to fuck around with his little princess and he'll hurt you…"_

"Shut up…"

 _"_ _And your father will be watching you, laughing at you, saying how you're a poor excuse of a son and he'll abandon you forever because no one wants an imperfect, ugly son."_ the reflection leaned in closer to Tsubaki, touching his hair before pulling one strand of his hair. _"And nobody wants to be around an imperfect person like you. If I were you, you should just leave this world forever. I doubt anyone would-"_

Having enough of his reflection speaking down on him, Tsubaki grabbed the handle of his red mug and screamed, "JUST GO AWAY, DAMN YOU!" as the reflection faded away and Tsubaki threw the mug onto the tiled floor, the mug shattering into small pieces, alongside with the black coffee leaking across the floor. Tsubaki breathed in and out heavily before stopping after he realized what he had done.

 _No, no, no, no, no! I'm so screwed!_

Xander noticed the noise and hurriedly set down the creamer on the table to see the mess Tsubaki has created.

"W-what happened, Tsubaki?" Xander asked as he saw Tsubaki, his knees slowly going down on the floor and just stared at the shattered pieces of the red mug and the pool of black coffee. "Hey, answer me."

"No… He'll murder me," Tsubaki can only respond to Xander without looking at him.

He? Xander assumed that Tsubaki must have meant his father and he'll most likely investigate what happened downstairs. And most likely, he'll assume it's his son rather than Xander.

"WHAT HAPPENED?!" Shion yelled as he made his way down the stairs. Once he entered the kitchen, he spotted the mess with the mug, and Tsubaki on his knees, staring down at the disaster. "Oh my gods, Tsubaki. Did you do this?"

No response from him.

"Tsubaki Miyazaki. Look me in the eyes," Shion walked forward to his son and grabbed his left arm hashly, forced him to look at the older man's eyes and yelled at him, "AND ANSWER ME!"

"Dad-" Tsubaki attempted to plead to his father before he realized he made another mistake.

"You will refer to me as 'father' and only 'father'! I don't need to remind you again, Tsubaki."

"I'm sorry f-father."

"Good. Now, tell me if you-"

"Sir," Xander popped into the conversation. "It was my fault. We spotted a cockroach on the table, and while getting rid of it, I accidentally knocked the mug off the table with my elbow."

"Huh? I-" Tsubaki stopped speaking when he witnessed Xander's middle and ring finger crossing together on his hips, recognizing the message Xander sent him through the signals.

"Really?" Shion not trusting Xander's word. "Are you sure about that?"

Xander nodded his head and replied with, "I assure you that an insect like a cockroach would make anyone scream, even your son and especially a grown adult like me."

Looking at his son and at the black-brown liquid on the tiled floor, Shion sighed and said, "Alright. But clean up this mess. I'm about to leave, so don't get into too much trouble. Alright?"

"Yes, father. I promise," Tsubaki replied, looking into his father's eyes.

"Very well. I'll see you very soon."

Shion walked away from the kitchen and slipped out of his slippers and into his brown loafers before he exited the house, leaving Tsubaki and Xander alone in the house. The moment his father left the house, Tsubaki hugged Xander tightly, muttering to him, "Oh, thank you," multiple times before the red-head buried his head onto Xander's shirt.

"Tsubaki, are you-" Xander was about to ask the red-head until Tsubaki lifted his head, revealing that his eyes didn't form any tears like Xander expected.

"Gods, I can't believe you lied to my father."

"I didn't want you to get punished for something so minuscule like spilling coffee onto the floor." Xander went ahead and ripped two sheets of paper towels, one soaking the liquid on the floor, and the other he'll use later to dry. It's not the proper way to clean the floor, but it's better than leaving the liquid to remain and eventually dry up to get sticky. As he's wiping the floor with the second paper towel, Xander asked Tsubaki, "By the way, why did you actually spilled the coffee?"

 _No…_ Tsubaki prayed to the Gods that Xander didn't ask him that question. It's enough that Xander knew his self-harming addiction he's attempting to break away slowly, but for him to reveal he's seeing his inner-thoughts/reflections taunting him, oh gods, Xander will surly think Tsubaki is severely insane.

Yet at the same time, maybe Xander won't; going through something similar to that while getting himself back on control a couple of years ago. Tsubaki will never know unless he tries.

"I- I don't want you to think that I sound crazy, but-" Tsubaki gulped a bit before confessing, "I saw- I saw myself, taunting me and saying you secretly don't like me."

Xander didn't say anything, leaving the paper towels on the floor as he went back to sit on the chair, alongside Tsubaki, head slumped on the table.

"I wanted to ignore these thoughts, but then my reflection kept pressing on, stating you'll hate me for sure when Kamui must sleep with me tomorrow."

Xander still didn't respond, eyebrows raised a bit when he heard the last bit.

"But before you make any rash assumptions, it means I'm simply…" Tsubaki bit his lip a bit before he manages to blurt out, "Kamui and I will share the same bed, maybe cuddling if possible. Nothing relating to-"

"I get it," Xander nodded his head, not wanting to hear any variation of 'that' word.

"And my reflection kept going on and on, saying you'll secretly take pleasure in my pain whenever my father criticizes me for making a simple mistake that can't be controlled, and telling me to just die already." Tsubaki deeply sighed, leaned back on his chair and said, "I'm sorry you had to see my father get furious around me."

"Tsubaki," Xander took a short sip of his coffee before he continued, "I don't despise you in any way, no matter what your thoughts tell you. And yes, witnessing your father's anger was quite unfortunate, but your father's rage doesn't measure up to mine…"

Of course. Especially during Xander's high school years. He didn't want to relive those days where he felt pressured on not making even a single mistake and endured the pain that was meant for his siblings, especially Kamui and Elise.

"Thanks, Xander." Tsubaki smiled, lifting his head off the table. "Tomorrow, I'll take good care of Kamui. I promise."

"Alright. I trust you."

* * *

Lying down on her bed after brushing her teeth and brushing her sandy blond locks, Kamui looked at her phone screen, reading the messages she received from Silas since he heard of the bet.

 _ **Silas: You'll wear cat ears tomorrow? What, no cat tail to go along with that?**_

 _ **Kamui: Only cat ears and a choker with a bell. People would grab the tail if I manage to wear that.**_

 _ **Silas: Makes sense.**_

 _ **Kamui: Anyway, tomorrow means I'm sleeping over at Tsubaki's house. You've been there before, right? Xander told me the house was huge.**_

 _ **Silas: Yeah, Tsubaki's house is really big both on the inside and outside. Though typically…**_

 _ **Kamui: I know.**_

Kamui didn't manage to finish the message she was going to send to Silas when her phone suddenly ringed and the screen showed an image of Tsubaki making a peace sign, smiling while standing in front of the jellyfish tank. She took the photo of him two weeks ago during their visit at the Izumo Center Aquarium and thought Tsubaki looked cute on that photo. Plus, it's the only one she has of him.

She decided to answer the call and waited to listen to Tsubaki's pleasant voice through her speakers.

 _"_ _Oh, thank the gods you've picked up the phone,"_ Tsubaki replied to his partner.

Giggling to herself, Kaumi answered, "Hey there, Tsubaki. How are you tonight?"

 _"Hmm…_ _Honestly, not that well."_ Tsubaki's cheery tone suddenly turned somber. _"My father visited me for dinner…"_

"Really? How did it went?"

 _"_ _Originally, he ditched dinner plans for Friday and decided he should make it up by eating dinner with me today._ _And on how dinner went… Typical."_

Kamui didn't even need to ask Tsubaki about what he meant by that answer. The red-head told the blond already about parts of his home life.

 _"_ _Your brother visited my house to check if the address was right,"_ Tsubaki added. _"And while he was there, my father scolded me for spilling coffee and breaking a mug. Right in front of Xander."_

"W-what?!" Xander didn't mention this to Kamui at all when he came back home.

 _"_ _I was lucky Xander lied to my father to get me out of his scoldings. You know, you're lucky to have a brother like Xander. No wait, lucky to have a loving family like yours. Anyone would die to have a family that cares for you."_ Kamui can hear Tsubaki laugh a bit and the sound of him plopping down on somewhere soft, most likely his bed.

"Getting ready for bed?" Kamui asked Tsubaki.

 _"_ _Yeah. It's already 11. You?"_

"I'm about to. Heck, I'm already lying down on my bed in my nightdress. You know, it almost feels like you're next to me."

 _"_ _Same. But tomorrow, you and I will be sleeping together on the same bed."_

Kamui blushed just thinking about sleeping next to Tsubaki. She wonders if he snores loudly like she does, or takes soft breaths when trying to sleep. Or if he'll hold Tsubasa tightly to him. Speaking of stuffed animals, what if Tsubaki decides to hug Kamui like one or vise-versa? Or what if their lips will barely touch while they're sleeping and eventually evolves into an actual kiss?!

Gods! Kamui's fantasies of tomorrow will wait!

"Hey, Tsubaki. Can you do something for me?" Kamui requested the red-head on the phone.

 _"_ _What is it?"_ Tsubaki questioned, eager to do a favor for Kamui.

Taking a deep breath, Kamui started to sing, "~Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are?~"

Getting the gist of Kamui's request, Tsubaki cleared his throat and started to sing from where Kamui left off, _"~Up above the world so high. Like a diamond in the sky.~"_

"~Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are?~" both of the teens concluded singing before laughing a little.

 _"_ _Does this nursery rhyme help you sleep?"_ Tsubaki asked Kamui.

"When I was younger. Plus, I wanted to hear you sing a bit and cheer you up a little after your incident with your father," Kamui confessed.

 _"_ _Ah. I feel a bit better. And you sound really cute when you sing."_

"You too. Though you sound a lot better when you sing the latest single from the Soarin' Knights. Especially-"

 _"_ _H-hey!"_

"It's true!" Kamui said before she accidentally added something that she might regret:

"Besides, you're voice is sexy, just like your appearance."

Both of the teens remained in silence after that comment. Kamui covered her mouth, realizing what she has said to Tsubaki. Gods, it's enough to admit to Tsubaki that he's a good-looking person, but to comment on his voice?! Oh, gods.

"Uh… W-we better get to bed now, right?" Kamui suggested, ready to end the call.

 _"_ _Yep. See you tomorrow, my little kitten~,"_ Tsubaki singed a bit before he hung him, leaving Kamui with her face blushing red and leaving her to imagine tomorrow's events.

Mainly her and Tsubaki sleeping together in the same bed. Oh, how blissful will that be for the two of them.

* * *

 **Author's Note: WHEW! So, this ended up being a lot shorter, meaning this is a Paralogue taking place between Chapter 6 and the REAL Chapter 7. This was suppose to be part of Chapter 7, but I cut it due to the fact that the word count may go overboard (and believe me, I've done that a few times). And the fact University took over for me in terms of essays, short stories to write, and countless reading assignments to complete.**

 **Also, this isn't the first Paralogue that will take place in "Perfectionist Complex". So see some in the future. And Paralogues will not have snippets of "Pancakes".**

 **Anyway, I hope you love this Paralogue/Chapter 6.5 and I'll get the REAL Chapter 7 in the future. Most likely before 2018 hits.**

 **Have a nice day! ;D**


	8. One Night

Kamui thought she can go through at least one class period where not a lot of people noticed her pink cat-ears headband, alongside the pink choker with a small silver bell on it to match the headband. Apparently, that's not happening.

Besides the teachers, at least one of her classmates attempted to touch her cat-ears either in the middle of the lecture or while they're doing class work. It didn't bother Kamui at first since it's not usual for anyone to wear animal accessories to school, but then it bugged her starting when someone actually snatched her cat-ears and started to make 'meow' sounds while asking why Kamui didn't talk like a cat for the whole day.

Nowhere in the bet said that Kamui had to say 'meow' or make cat puns throughout the school day. Honestly, that can get quite annoying after a few minutes. Thank the gods. Yet there are cases where people constantly ask questions that goes like this:

"Where's your tail to go along with your kitty ears?"

"Can I pat your head?"

"How about some whiskers?"

Most people would snap and probably lash out after getting bombarded with absurd requests almost every minute, but Kamui managed to keep her cool for the whole day, even if someone tossed a can of tuna (the cat-food kind) to her during her lunch period. Seriously, who in the hell brings a can of cat food to school anyway?!

"Want me to-" Tsubaki didn't finish his sentence when Kamui happily tossed the can of cat food towards his lap.

"I'm sure there are some stray cats in your neighborhood who would love it," Kamui said as she peeled her orange.

"Y-yeah… Some cats actually do come up in my backyard from time to time." Tsubaki laughed a bit as he stuffed the can of cat-food inside his backpack.

Kamui slammed her fists on the table, the red plastic tray with half eaten food slightly going up due to the rumble, excitingly asked, "Really?! Ooh, you've gotta show me them sometime today!"

"Ah, they show up on random days, so there's a chance that the stray cats might not even appear today," Tsubaki added an important detail.

"Oh, okay. Still," Kamui eyed on Tsubaki's backpack since it contained the can of cat food, "We should leave some food for the cats just in case they decided to pop in and say 'hi' to you."

"Or beg me for food."

As he finished his sentence, Tsubaki's phone vibrated from his pocket. He pulled his phone out and quickly read the message before Kamui decided to take a quick peek at it.

"Ah! K-Kamui!" Tsubaki yelped a bit, almost falling backward.

"Sorry," Kamui quickly apologized. "Who's-"

"Uh… Just a message from a family friend. She's going to visit tonight just to check up on me, so don't freak out later if you see a woman in the house. Okay?"

Kamui nodded her head and said, "Promise. And tell me I get to take off these cat accessories by the time school is over."

Tsubaki only just smiled and laughed a bit in response to Kamui's request before he returned to his half-eaten apple. Ooh, gods. Something tells Kamui she might as well wear them even when the two are asleep. Or not. There's a chance in that as well.

* * *

 _"Please don't forget our bi-monthly house meeting at 5 PM, which is held at your house. See you soon, my Pegasus Warrior."_ -Cordelia Capulet

Normally, Tsubaki wouldn't mind it that his therapist/counselor visited him. In fact, he enjoys these sessions with Cordelia for the ten years he's known her; discussing his personal struggles he wouldn't share with his father. But considering that Kamui is staying at his house for the night and the following morning…

Oh, gods! So many different scenarios are roaming inside Tsubaki's head! What if Cordelia and Kamui meet each other? Sure, he told Kamui about a family friend visiting his house later today… He probably should have given more details! Then again…

 _"Just a message from my therapist/counselor of ten years that's gonna pop by."_ would bring a lot of questions from Kamui. Or maybe she wouldn't mind since she's aware of his issue with his father and life outside of school. Tsubaki just prays that Cordelia would be mindful on what they discuss during the two-hour session.

For now, he took a small breath as he and Kamui stepped out of the bus and made their way to the front of Tsubaki's house. He looked at Kamui, who is admiring how Tsubaki's house looked on the outside. It never gets old whenever someone views his house for the first time. One look and they have no other words than "Wow!" or "Cool!" (or any positive variation of it) to describe the exterior of the house: two-story creamy white house with a veranda on the second floor, a window that reveals most of the living room (and some of the staircase), the front garden with flowers for the autumn season, most of which were arranged in the middle.

"Wait 'til you see the inside of the house," Tsubaki said to Kamui. He wanted to add, "Big yet empty," but decided against it for reasons.

"Cool!"

"Just give me a second." Tsubaki dug through his pockets to pull out the keys to his house and inserting it to the keyhole of the front door.

A few seconds later, he pulled the key out and turned the doorknob to let himself and Kamui inside. He slipped off his shoes and into some red slippers lying on the front door. Kamui followed suit, removing her black flats and picking up a pair of white slippers, only for her to read the tag that reveals the shoe size of the slippers: 9-10.

"Dang it, I'm a size 7-8," Kamui muttered, placing the too big slippers down on the floor, and looked at Tsubaki, currently making his way upstairs to his room. "Hey, do you have any other slippers in my size… or close to it?"

"Unfortunately, no. I used to, but the stray cats decided to use the last pair of 7-8 slippers as their scratching post."

"Are you serious?" Kamui questioned him, placing her bag on the cushions of his sofa.

"You can check the backyard if you're curious, kitty cat," Tsubaki teased a bit, knowing that Kamui is still wearing her cat ears headband. Originally, she was supposed to wear them until school's over, but then Anna decided that Kamui can keep it since Anna has no use of the headband anymore.

Kamui laughed at the nickname Tsubaki before replying to him, "Okay then, Baki." as she ran towards the back door, going without slippers and still wearing her black knee socks.

Tsubaki really needs to buy another pair of 7-8 slippers whenever he has the time.

He quickly opened the door and entered his room, tossing his backpack onto the side of his bed. Quietly closing the door, Tsubaki pulled a drawer underneath his desk, revealing two powder brushes (one small and another large), a compact powder that's been recently open, a concealer bottle with the lid half-twisted (thankfully no liquid coming out of it), a roll of bandages, a small first-aid kit, and… a small razor blade. Gods, just the sight of it makes Tsubaki feel dizzy, suddenly sweating. Not even five minutes in his own house and already he feels like he's going to faint!

He can't let Kamui see it. Absolutely not! He can easily keep the first-aid kit and the bandage wraps, not too sure about the make-up, but the razor needs to go! Sure, the razor is small, yet deadly if she somehow finds it. Now, where should he hide it? Obviously, in a place, Kamui wouldn't likely look. So all the drawers are automatically crossed off his mental list.

Underneath all his textbooks? No way.

His pockets? He could accidentally pull it without him knowing it!

The trash bin? Oh, no. He recently emptied it, so one good look and it's over for him!

"Ahhhh!" Tsubaki groaned, still holding onto the cursed razor. "Where, where, where, where?!"

 _Come on, Tsubaki! Think fast!_ His mind screamed, quickly going back and forth on the possible hiding places for the razor.

"Hey, Tsubaki! Check out this kitty that entered the house. He's sooooo adorable!" Kamui called out to him, with said kitty loudly crying a 'meow'.

 _CRAP!_

"Uh… coming!"

Tsubaki looked at the razor for a second before he sighed deeply, deciding he'll keep the razor in his pockets for now. He can throw away the razor at the downstairs garbage bin when Kamui (or the kitty) isn't looking. Exiting the door, Tsubaki rushed down the stairs and into the living room where he sees Kamui, on the couch, petting the gray and white kitty, currently sitting on Kamui's lap.

"Ah, I see you met Cookie," Tsubaki said as he took a seat next to Kamui. "He comes here every few days."

"I can figure out why he's named Cookie," Kamui replied to Tsubaki, still petting Cookie's body. "Gods, he's super soft!"

"He is." Tsubaki agreed, petting Cookie's head. "Cookie is the neighborhood cat here, even has his own cat house someone built him. He rarely sleeps here and insists on sleeping on one of our neighbor's house."

"And he likes yours the most?"

Tsubaki laughed a bit before answering, "Yeah. Cookie mainly comes here whenever my father-"

 _"Do me a favor, Tsubaki. Take Cookie over to our next door neighbor. I simply don't have the time to take care of him at the moment."_

"Uh… I'd rather not go into…"

His father is the last thing he needed to think about. Especially after the disastrous dinner last night. Probably would have ended up worse if Xander didn't show up.

RING! RING!

Hmm? Tsubaki pulls his phone from his pocket (not the one with the razor, thank the gods) and sees Cordelia's name, alongside a picture of her holding a cone of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, smiling yet not looking at the camera. Quickly, Tsubaki faced away Kamui and answered the phone call.

"Cordelia?" Tsubaki quietly started the phone conversation with his therapist.

 _"Tsubaki, I'm gonna be a little late for our meeting,"_ Cordelia replied. _"It's nothing too serious. I thought you and I can have our session while we have dinner. I'm finishing up your favorite dish: tonkatsu with fried rice."_

"O-oh. That's really sweet of you. Uh, Cordelia… I… I need to… Ug... "

 _"Hmm? Is something the matter, Tsubaki?"_

Tsubaki took a quick glance at Kamui, currently scratching Cookie's ears and playing with his small paws. He then answered to Cordelia, "Um… I have someone over at my house today. I'm sorry I didn't tell you yesterday…"

 _"Oh. Is Hinata or-"_

"N-no. It's actually a girl from my English class: Kamui Hier. We have actually paired up for an assignment two weeks ago and… Uh…" He's not too sure if he can explain to Cordelia that Kamui came here due to a bet they made. "I only told her that you'll be visiting to check up on me, but didn't mention anything about our session. I'm s-scared that she'll-"

 _"Tsubaki, if you're worried about that happening, just tell her about our session. She'll understand you, I promise."_

"Y-you mean it?"

 _"Cross my heart, my Pegasus Warrior. I'm about done with the dish, so I'll see you in fifteen minutes,"_ Cordelia reassured him as the phone call ended.

Tsubaki placed his phone back to his pocket and saw Kamui petting Cookie as he's sleeping on Kamui's lap.

"Who called you?" Kamui wondered.

"Uh… my family friend, Cordelia," Tsubaki paused for a bit, taking a small breath before telling her, "She's also my therapist."

"Hmm?"

"We have a session today and I forgot to tell her about today's events nor did I ask her to move the session to next week."

"Oh gods," says Kamui, looking down at the floor. She then placed her hand on Tsubaki's left shoulder, rubbing it slowly.

"These sessions either take place in her office or my house depending on our schedules and they're always private. But today though…" Tsubaki gripped a nearby pillow as he's talking. "I don't want to sound mean, but I fear you might…"

"Eavesdrop?" Kamui guessed, with Tsubaki responding with a simple nod. Kamui gently picked up Cookie off her lap and placed him on the rug before pulling Tsubaki into a hug. "Tsubaki, if you want, I'll stay in your room so you can have your session with Cordelia in peace. I won't come out of your room nor will I go downstairs until it's done. I promise."

"R-really?" Tsubaki wondered. "I-if you do, then please don't snoop too much in my room."

Even if he removed the razor blade from his shelf, Tsubaki has a nagging thought that Kamui could possibly find his journal that contains his darkest secrets; self-harming one of them.

"Cross my heart!" Kamui responded as she broke up the hug. "Besides, I can entertain myself with 'Winter Line' or watch something on Netflix. I heard that the extended version of Battle Royale is up."

"Aw, gods. I heard it makes the film even more sad yet violent!"

"Can we watch a couple of minutes of the movie?" Kamui asked Tsubaki.

Tsubaki grabbed the remote from the coffee table, turned on the TV screen and selected Netflix. Once he found Battle Royale (not English dubbed), the movie played and the two watched the opening scene of the movie. During this, Tsubaki's hand inched closer towards Kamui's, slowly touching her hand but he pulled away as Kamui leaned towards Tsubaki, her head landing on his lap.

 _Oh, gods!_ Tsubaki exclaimed in his thoughts, his face turning slightly red, heart beating faster. No, not because of how close Kamui is to Tsubaki. But because Tsubaki fears that she might see the razor on his pants pockets! Any normal person wouldn't have a razor in their pockets, let alone one with some blood stains on the edges! There's no way that Tsubaki can make an excuse to Kamui if she happens to see it or dig through his pockets at random! He should have gotten rid of it sooner! Or maybe… He can hide the razor under the couch cushions. Hardly anyone looks under the cushions!

Luckily, Kamui is too absorbed into the movie to notice Tsubaki's left hand slowly digging his pockets and pulling the razor out before quietly shoving the razor under the small cracks of the cushions. That's one less thing Tsubaki has to worry about for the night.

At the ten minute mark, the two teens screamed a bit at the scene where the teacher removes the knife from a student's forehead, especially when the knife made a sharp, loud sound. Tsubaki slightly shivered over that sound, even if the sound isn't accurate. Just that sound alone makes him think of the times he used that **damn** razor, cutting through his skin, letting the blood flow out of the wounds and-

No, no, no! Tsubaki shouldn't think about it for now.

Right as the two watched the soldiers firing their guns towards the floor, the doorbell ringed twice. Kamui lifted her head off of Tsubaki's head to allow him to make his way towards the front door while the movie is still playing. Tsubaki opened the door and sees Cordelia carrying a glass container that has fried rice and multiple slices of tonkatsu on top of the rice.

"Cordelia, it's great to see you!" Tsubaki greeted his therapist.

"Same here," Cordelia replied as she took off her boots and slipped onto red slippers. She entered the kitchen alongside with Tsubaki, placing the container on the dining table before pulling Tsubaki into a brief hug. "So, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine for the most part," he honestly replied.

"Oh? That's good to hear." Cordelia noticed the sound from the TV and looked to see what's playing on the screen. She stared back at Tsubaki before saying, "You were watching Battle Royale before I came here?"

"Uh… Kamui wanted to-"

As if on cue, the movie paused and Kamui quickly got off the couch and entered the kitchen. Kamui starred at Cordelia, then looked at Tsubaki before swishing her head a few times. Tsubaki can guess what Kamui is gonna say.

"Whoa! You two look alike!" Kamui exclaimed before looking at Cordelia. "If Tsubaki didn't mention you were his therapist, I would have mistaken you for his aunt."

Cordelia laughed at the comment before replying, "I get that a lot."

Yep. Sure, Tsubaki and Cordelia may have similar hair and eye color, though Tsubaki is a bit paler in comparison to Cordelia, alongside taller and a bit muscular than her. He can remember the countless times that he could be mistaken as Cordelia's nephew, cousin, younger sibling, and most commonly, her child!

"You must be Kamui Hier, is that right?" Cordelia asked. "Tsubaki mentioned you during our phone call. I'm Cordelia Capulet."

"Yeah, I'm Kamui! Nice to meet you!" Kamui happily greeted Cordelia, shaking her hand.

"Same here." Cordelia noticed the cat ears headband that Kamui is still wearing and said, "Cute ears."

"Aw, thanks! I had to wear them since I lost a bet to Tsubaki."

 _Crap!_ Tsubaki thought.

"Hmm? He never mentioned anything about a bet," Cordelia says as she glanced at Tsubaki, giving him a look that reads 'Why didn't you tell me this before?'. "What about it?"

"Well…"

Before Kamui can even have a chance to start her explanation, Tsubaki cut her off by saying, "Why don't we talk this during dinner? Kamui, you must be starving, right?"

"I am, though the same goes to you since your stomach grumbled during English."

Oh, gods…

* * *

Tsubaki can be glad that dinner today is going a hell lot smoothing compared to yesterday. No haunting silence nor questions and conversations that solely involved school. Plus, he's eating at a slightly faster pace nor is he struggling to swallow his food as if he's going to vomit later. Sure, he had fried rice yesterday and the fried rice on his place tastes similar to the one his father made, only Cordelia's tastes a little fluffier and less salty compared to his father. Not that he hates his father's cooking. It's fine — or rather perfect as Shion dubs it — as he usually follows the recipes step-by-step. Nothing too little or large are allowed on the dishes.

During dinner, Kamui and Cordelia are in the middle of a conversation, with Kamui recalling a story involving Xander, Leo, and Owain from a few weeks ago that made Tsubaki chuckle a bit.

"...So Owain somehow managed to get Xander to play Melee with him and Leo for Owain's live streams he does every week," Kamui told the tale as she took a bite of the pork slice.

"You're talking about 'Odin Dark's Divine Gaming'. Right?" Cordelia guessed.

"Yeah, exactly! How do you know?"

"Oh, my daughter is a recurring guest on his streams. Severa claims that she gets 'dragged by her will', but she just wants to beat him."

"I see," Kamui laughed a little bit before continuing the tale. "Anyway, Xander easily beat Leo and Owain at Melee in every match since Xander played it a lot with his friend when he was younger."

"Really? That's nice," Tsubaki pitched into the conversation. "So, what happens next?"

"Xander left after Leo practically begged him to leave after Xander tried suggesting he should bring his friend over to play Melee."

Tsubaki laughed a bit before saying, "Leo? Begging? That doesn't sound like how he acts in school."

"Yeah. Leo's a different person when he's at home with my siblings. Same with most people."

"Like me," Tsubaki pointed out, finishing the last piece of tonkatsu. He looked at the clock and noticed the time: 5:45.

Kamui and Cordelia noticed the time too as the latter picked her plate, utensils, and cup off the table and started to wash them on the kitchen sink. Kamui managed to eat the last few bits of fried rice off of her plate and was about to go towards the sink when Tsubaki picked up her plate, utensils, and cup, and stacked the plate with his; the cups together and the utensils on top of the plate.

"I'll handle it. Don't worry," Tsubaki said as he made his way to help Cordelia with the dishes.

"Oh, alright. I'll go upstairs to your room so you two can start your session," says Kamui as she got up from her seat and made her way to the stairs.

Tsubaki made his way towards the kitchen sink and assisted Cordelia with cleaning the dishes. He started with the spoons and forks since removing the stains from them isn't too difficult (at least to him) with a sponge. After finishing with the utensils, Tsubaki moved on with the cups, drenching them with the running water before quickly moving on to the plates.

Five minutes later after placing the dishes on the dishwasher, Tsubaki and Cordelia were in the living room, sitting on the couch with Cookie resting on Tsubaki's lap. The TV is turned off so that there are no distractions during the session. Besides, the other outside noise that's okay during the session is the occasional purrs from Cookie.

"Tsubaki, you seem to get along with Kamui very well," Cordelia started, pulling her red journal and black-ink pen from her maroon handbag.

"I do," Tsubaki responded. "She's really sweet, smart, cute-"

"Ooh, seems like you have a crush on her. Huh?"

"Eh?! W-well she called me sexy and intelligent two days ago," Tsubaki said, his face blushing red. "Plus, we've been getting to know each other over the past two weeks and spending a bit more time with each other at school and outside. We even got to spend one Sunday together at Izumo Center because of Kamui's younger sister."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. It was nice," Tsubaki added. "Anyway, I told her about my family life and my home life, but-"

"Not your other problems?"

Tsubaki nodded. He quickly dug his hands under the cushions to pull the razor he hid from Kamui earlier and showed it to Cordelia before putting it back under the cushions.

"It was from my room and I hid it just so Kamui wouldn't find it. I was so worried that Kamui would find it next to my first-aid kit and will know that I cut myself whenever I felt," Tsubaki took a short breath as saying that word almost made Tsubaki want to vomit his dinner. He barely managed to finish his sentence, "Imperfect. I don't know how she'll feel about me harming myself, but I'm still scared that… I… I don't know…" Tsubaki started to break into tears, gripping the cushions as he didn't want to disturb Cookie from his long nap by clenching onto him tightly. Oh, he wishes that he had Tsubasa with him.

"Tsubaki." Cordelia gently wiped his tears with her pink handkerchief, handing the soft cloth to him for the remainder of the session. "It's okay. You tell Kamui when you feel like you're ready. Alright?"

"O-okay. Uh," Tsubaki quickly cleared his throat. "I've told her older brother about my self-harm habits."

"You mean Xander?"

"Yeah. He actually harmed himself during his University years and understands what I'm going through. He's even helping me trying to break my habit, as well as keeping it a secret."

"That's great someone else will help you through this challenge."

"He even visited me while I had dinner with father-" Tsubaki paused his sentence, remembering yesterday night with his father.

"Oh… The usual?" Cordelia asked, with Tsubaki nodding in response.

Silence in the air. Conversations only concerning about Tsubaki's grades. Difficulty swallowing or keeping even his favorite dishes. Ending with a harsh scolding on Tsubaki's mistakes. Yeah, the usual for Tsubaki's dinner whenever Shion is home. His father not scolding him would be something that would make a good dinner night for Tsubaki. A bad one? Shion not eating (or barely) and spends the entire dinner criticizing Tsubaki for not living up to his standards whenever Tsubaki makes a 'critical error'. Oh, and Tsubaki vomiting whatever he ate after the harsh scolding.

"I broke a coffee mug when I saw my reflection taunting me again, telling me terrible thoughts," Tsubaki added, gently petting Cookie's head. "I was lucky Xander covered for me, even lying to my father."

"Really now? Kamui is very lucky to have Xander as her big brother."

Tsubaki briefly laughed a bit before continuing, "I even called Xander 'father' at one point."

"Reminds me how you would call me 'mommy' when you were younger." Cordelia laughed briefly as she continued to write down in her journal. "Anyway, you still have your inner reflection taunt you at times?"

"I do. They're not that terrible like a few months ago, but they still haunt me whenever I'm at my worst. I'm trying my best to fight them off, yet there are times that those thoughts will break me," Tsubaki felt Cookie wake up, stretching before the kitty moved between him and Cordelia.

"We all have those days, sweetie," Cordelia commented before petting Cookie's head. "And you're making great progress on fighting with your struggles. I mean it."

Tsubaki smiled at Cordelia, pulling her into a hug for a brief second. He's very lucky to have someone like Cordelia as his therapist — Scratch that — someone like Cordelia in his life. She helped him move on after his mother died, looked after him whenever Shion isn't home (which frequently happens), cheer him up when he feels depressed, inviting him over to her family events, the list can go on! Cordelia has done so much beyond being his therapist since he was seven.

"Please, keep on fighting, my Pegasus Warrior."

* * *

Late at night, Tsubaki and Kamui were sharing the same bed, with the latter asleep with her stuffed dragon, Andy, close to her chest. Tsubaki, meanwhile, is struggling to keep his eyes closed, thinking about the session he had with Cordelia and what she said to him. Especially the part about telling Kamui about his self-harm habit whenever he's ready. He doesn't know when will it be the perfect time to tell Kamui about it, but he knows that it can't be too early or too late, or else their relationship will-

"N-no…"

Tsubaki noticed Kamui shivering despite being covered with soft bedsheets and keeps muttering in her sleep, alongside tears coming from her shut eyes. Not too shortly after, her voice grew louder and kept moving side from side, shaking more and sobbing.

"Please… no! Don't leave me…" Kamui sobbed in her sleep.

Worried about leaving Kamui in her nightmare, Tsubaki gently shook Kamui awake. She opened her eyes, noticing the concerning look Tsubaki had on his face and wiped some of the tears from her eyes.

Kamui sniffed before saying, "S-sorry. Did I wake you up?"

Tsubaki shook his head before placing his hand on Kamui's bare shoulder. "I didn't want you to suffer in your sleep."

"Oh. Thanks."

"Do you mind telling me what your dream was about? If you want."

Kamui sighed, inching a bit closer to Tsubaki. "I dreamt of my early childhood. I got locked in a closet by my father for something stupid. I don't remember what. But then, Xander got tossed with me as well."

Tsubaki shivered at what Kamui is describing of her nightmare. It reminded him of when Shion tossed him into the coat closet whenever he did something 'imperfect' or upset Shion— as a child and even now whenever he visits.

"My father did this a lot to me and Xander. My brother would always be with me, comforting me while the two of us were locked in the closet for hours," Kamui continued on, clinging tightly onto Andy. "But in my dream, it was days. And Xander," Kamui sobbed, tears coming from her eyes as she tried to speak, "X-Xander died. Gods, I know it was just a dream, but I can't imagine if my brother actually died. He's done so much for me and my siblings all these years. In all honesty, my brother is practically my father." Kamui laughed a little bit. "There were moments I actually called Xander 'dad' or 'daddy' when I was younger."

"Y-you did?" Tsubaki thought that Kamui wouldn't say 'daddy' to her older brother

"Yeah. I even said 'daddy' in front of his friend."

"Reminds me how I said 'mommy' to Cordelia at times and Severa would always get mad, screaming to me, 'She's my mommy! Mine, mine, mine!'" Tsubaki added, his voice in a high-pitch tone.

Kamui laughed at Tsubaki's best imitation of Severa as she wiped most of the tears from her eyes. "Aw, Tsubaki. Thanks for listening."

"The least I can do after you've listened to my worries." Tsubaki wiped the remaining tears rolling from Kamui's face before he quickly kissed her cheek.

Kamui placed her hand on the cheek that Tsubaki kissed, her face blushing red.

"Uh… D-did you just-" Kamui stumbled on her words.

"I did. And I-" Tsubaki didn't manage to finish his sentence when Kamui quickly kissed Tsubaki on the cheek and his forehead.

"Now we're even. And I won't tell Xander about our kiss. I promise."

"Alright, Kamui. Now you won't have nightmares for the rest of the night because of me."

"If that's the case," Kamui lied down, wrapped her arms around Tsubaki's waist, pulling him close towards Kamui. "Can we stay like this for the rest of the night?"

Tsubaki nodded his head, wrapped his arms around Kamui's shoulders before the two closed their eyes, slowly falling asleep with no fear of any nightmares. It's nice for Tsubaki to have one night without being reminded of his inner fears or any haunting events from a few months ago. Just peace, quiet, and snuggled with Kamui at the comfort of his bed.

* * *

 **"Is this what you meant by a 'fun time', Kazuya?" Tsubomi asked as she watched her classmate currently playing Galaga.**

 _"Hell yeah if you haven't been to an arcade in forever!" Kazuya exclaimed, focused on the game. "And I don't mean those arcades filled with many crane games."_

 **Tsubomi sighed in annoyance. When she texted Kazuya that she wanted to leave the house, she expected Kazuya to drive her somewhere close by like a local diner or a book store. Not an indoor mall that's twenty minutes away from where she lives! Though to be fair, she hasn't been to this particular mall (Sunset Fashion) in a few months, nor did she even been to the arcade section. Of course, when Kazuya said they'll go to the arcade, Tsubomi didn't expect to see a prize corner, ticket games (such as ski-ball or whack-a-mole), and some arcade games exported from Japan.**

 _And honestly, this beats than staying home. Reading and doing homework for a couple of hours, then eating dinner all alone before showering and sleeping. All before her father arrives from work. Maybe she can spend a couple of money towards a game card (no tokens…) and play a couple of those games herself. Tsubomi had her eyes on a cute kitty plushie on one of the prize shelves, so if she gets lucky with some of the games, then she'll have one more plushie to add to her collection. And liven up her room._

* * *

 **Author's Note: Well, I know it's been almost two years since I've updated "Perfectionist Complex", but it's better than nothing. Anyway, I may do a Paralogue on Owain's gaming stream with Leo and Xander (and maybe some others).**

 **But still, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

 **See ya soon!**


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